Death Root: Dark Heart
by The Dude Of Doom
Summary: Their gone…all gone…and it’s up to us to get them back…they call me Dark Heart and I’m the new leader of the Death Root Mercenaries. Continuation of Death Root: Nightmare Aquapolis
1. Blood on a Knife…is hard to clean off

**Here we go. I don't own One Piece! You wanted this chapter well….YOU CAN'T HANDLE THIS CHAPTER…sorry I think I was channeling a movie. Sorry if the starting chapters are short.**

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_Chapter 1: Blood on a Knife…is hard to clean off_

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The Duke of Heatgnome Island was a reasonably liked man on his island. The local people tolerated him and his…behavior, he was the successor to the original Duke of Heartgnome, his father, who was probably one of the biggest tyrants in the islands history. The Duke has been trying for the past nine year's after his father's death to clear his family's name, and felt he was getting closer by the day. His fathers legacy was ruled by oppression and fear, the Duke has been trying to turn the system for the better and make it fair and trusting towards the people.

He had a lovely wife who was a few……years younger than him and several children, his oldest, Lilly, being seven. So if the duke was such a kind person, why was he now strapped to a chair in nothing but what he was born in with blood running down from a rather sever looking head wound.

The Duke of Heartgnome was a rich man, and like every other person on the planet no matter what they'll want you to believe, was flawed. He suspected everyone other than his closes family wanted to steal him money, so he hid it away, to no one knows where.

There was also a more serious problem, you see…the Duke liked young woman, and not the normal kind of meaning when an older man likes a younger girl, the oldest girl he's 'been with' was his wife…she was ten when she had there first child and fourteen when they married, he in his fifties.

You see the last duke was so horrible that the current dukes behavior seem like a god send, even if it meant no girl over the age of six were…innocent anymore, including his own seven year old daughter.

The Dukes eyes moved around franticly looking around the room he was in, studying every little detail of the nearly dark, damp room he was in.

His mouth was gagged and he's been awake for a few hour's now, no one came to see him, or rescue, he was sure his soldiers were sending search teams for him…but he had no clue what time it was, he lost that sense after the first hour.

The room he was kept in did have a window but every thirty minutes, or fifteen…it seemed to be random…the light would go off and later back on.

He was loosing all sense of time, and all sense of reality, still having not found a way out of his bindings…the door slammed open.

In walked a woman trapped in a teenager's body, the Duke could tell from the way she held herself and vibe she gave. She looked around eighteen, maybe even nineteen, a little old for the Dukes taste, but the air she gave when she entered the room said she's seen things someone her age shouldn't be seeing.

The woman wasn't someone you'll consider tall being around 5'5, 5'6 at the most with the body of an athlete, which told him she trained somehow or worked hard in whatever it is that she did.

Her violet, dark purple hair went to her shoulders in waves, some of it being held back by the half circle glasses that rested on her small thin nose. The Duke couldn't see her eyes due to the glare the woman's glasses gave from reflecting what little light there was in the room.

The woman's black lab coat billowed and shifted as she walked, wonder how she did that. Under that was a purple and black stripped polo shirt that seemed to huge tightly around her womanly figure, and stopping just above her well toned stomach. The somewhat baggy jeans that she wore were sitting low on her hips, being held up by a thick leather belt with a few leather pouches attacked to it. The duke was positive she was wearing some sort of heel, or at least a raised shoe, he could hear it on the ground.

The violet haired woman studied the naked man for a few seconds while muttering to herself about a blonde man and said something along the lines of 'He would have made a bad bondage joke at this point…' the Duke didn't understand what she meant by that, well he didn't understand a lot of things at the moment.

The woman unhooked his gag, a red ball like thing that was shoved into his mouth tied to his head by some black fabric, he was about to call for help when she stopped, the red ball still in his mouth, a tiny curve at the corner of her lips suggested she found something humorous.

"If you yell no one will hear you, this rooms been sound proofed. You'll just run out of breath."

"Ar-are y-you and ass-as-assassin?" the Duke whimpered quietly.

"If I was you would have been dead a long _long_ time ago." the woman said, she had the icy voice of someone how didn't give to shit's about someone else's life.

"Then…what…what…are you?"

"You can say we're mercenary's…Jack's of all Trades…masters of quite a few of them."

"Then you are assassin's…" she slapped him…hard.

"Now what did I just tell you? Hm? We're not 'assassins', there hired to kill all the time, just like thief's can be commissioned to steal certain things. We're merc's, you could say were the whores of the 'minions for hire' world, we'll go to the highest bidder for the right price, and if you make a contract with use…can't have someone trying to twist how they use us now can we." the cold violet haired woman said leaning down till there noses touched "To bad for you…you can't pay your way out of this."

"What do you want….?" the Duke whimpered.

"Now you see, I just don't think your ready to talk about what I want yet…" from the inside of her coat she pulled out a trench knife, it looked wicked, like it was alive and wanting to taste blood "…I'm going to start off with this little girl, after awhile and if I still don't think your ready to talk I'll start using her twin sister…Now lets get started."

She opened one of the pouches on her belt pulling out a small bottle and dripped the liquid inside onto her blade. Slowly running her blade across the dukes arm, the cut wasn't deep, a lot like a paper cut…but he screams, it burned badly and hurt like she was cutting his arm off.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT!" the Duke screamed threw his tears.

---X---

Shan Tifihe liked this part of the job, seeing a completely broken and useless man laying in front of her weeping silently. The duke was still naked and only had around ten paper cut like wounds trailing down each arm. Normally that wouldn't hurt all that much, sting like hell but not hurt badly, but the poison that overloaded the senses with pain for each wound they received , which can make a paper cut fell like your arm was breaking…helped her, didn't help him thou.

"Okay now I think I'm ready." Shan mumbled, she knew he could hear her.

"Lets start with something easy…where is your vault?" the duke gurgled in pain, sadly he didn't answer Shan.

"I asked where is your vault!" she jammed her trench knife into the Dukes thigh, his painful yell broke him out of his trance.

"It's, It's under my office rug! Please, please, please let me go! I'll give you anything!"

"Anything…really…" Shan mumbled in thought before walking over and sticking her head outside of the doorway. Standing there was someone taller than Shan, Shan knew exactly who it was.

"Death, his office floor under the carpet. Check it out." Death was just the codename of this person, but the long black coat, and deep hood added with the pure white skull mask effectively hide every feature…we'll almost every feature, if you looked closely enough you could tell the sex of Death. Death's whole outfit actually did make the person look like the Grim Reaper, Death's weapon of choice added to that.

"It's been almost a month Dark Heart…when the hell are we going to find them." growled a defiantly female voice from behind the mask.

Yes, Death was a woman, a woman who has been in a rather…dark mood ever since her fiancé was arrested a few weeks back. Now when she was ordered to attack someone she carves a bloody path. Death was also starting to wear her cloak everywhere she went other than their ship when it's one the ocean.

Maybe Mac had a better influence on the woman that Shan suspected…maybe when they got the guys back she could convince Endo to move there room.

"Don't give me lip Death, I told you Mass Claw keeps the location of his prison hidden. But we need to keep doing these jobs whenever we make a stop, or we'll starve on the sea before we even find them. When we're done we'll see what information Crow and Sunshine managed to find…got it?"

The cloaked woman seemed to growl at Shan before disappearing in a blur. Shan smirked to herself, she had control over Death…only when information on the prison may be in the balance.

Shan turned back into the room, the lump of a duke crying his heart out, poor tainted soul…at least what she was going to do wouldn't bother her or her thoughts at all.

"By the speed Death is going you have close to two minutes to tell me if your lying." Shan said to the man "and if I find out your lying. I'll be taking one of your fingers…that means you have eleven chances to tell me the truth."

"I-I-" the Duke kept stuttering like that for the next few minutes, Death entered the room quietly, the cloak seeming to mold with the shadows.

"It's there…"

"Disappear or Natural?"

"Client wanted him gone." Death muttered. Shan nodded her head while tying an apron around her body and rolling up he sleeves…she didn't want to get her good clothes messy.

"What are you-" Shan drove her trench knife between his rips, into a main heart artery and maybe a lung, the duke gagged on his own blood before quickly becoming still.

Shan checked his pulse, none, and huffed "Elsa wait outside…I have work to be done."

"It'll be much faster if you just let me cut the corpse up." said Elsa Nativa, Death, as she walked out of the room, even thou she said it she wasn't going to help unless ordered.

" You know what I'm going to do Elsa…" Shan slowly dragging the knife downward before slowly pulling it out and cutting the skin off exposing the rib cage.

"Time to get to work."

With a sickening few cracks the rib cage popped right off.

---X---

The dukes seventeen year old widow hugged her eight children when Shan walked into the room, hands somewhat stained in blood. Death, or Elsa having long since returned to the ship.

"The job's done." tears of joy streamed down the widows face.

"Since the contract is complete I'm expecting my pay." the cold tone of Shan's voice got threw to the overjoyed widow.

"Yes yes…half of what was in the vault, it's right there in that chest…I had it transferred into large paper bills for easier transport." her children, other than her oldest, asleep around her.

Shan nodded, reached into her pocket and dropped a human heart covered in tar onto the table before turning and picking up the chest "May I suggest not putting that under the floor boards…if you have another job call me…if not hopefully you can live with what you had us do."

"I can."

"Then this is a goodbye." Shan walked out of the room.

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**This fic is defiantly going to be M. I'm also going to try to making it dark, yet still keep the DR humor to it (thou that's going to be hard without Endo in this fic)…Penny you'll need to pick of the slack.**

**Okay it's been a month in my universe since Water 7, and we saw how Shan and Elsa changed…wonder what Kazuya and Penny are like now…you'll see next chapter!**

**Now Read and Review People!**


	2. On a Boat

**I Don't own One Piece. Sorry I don't update fast but you know life does get in the way, good news is I'll probably finish this semesters school work with this month so I should be free to write for a few months…if I don't find a job…freely , don't know when chapter 3 will be out, I've only written two scenes and I'm redoing one of them.**

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_Chapter 2: On a Boat_

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Shan waited behind her desk, it's been fine long days since there last job with killing that perverted duke. Kazuya, their look out and archer said there was a marine base just a sail away from that last island. Elsa was ecstatic until Kazuya said that this wasn't the island that was run by the man they were looking for, Mass Claw James, a Vice-Captain in the marines.

Shan was starting to feel a tiny bit guilty about not telling Elsa her fiancé Mac was slowly dieing due to how he received his devil fruit powers, by injection with a zoan fruit that was liquefied…but that guilty feeling quickly disappeared due to Elsa's emotional violent outburst over the past month…plus it was for the great good of there family.

Under that giant shifting cloak of hers, Elsa was a beautiful woman with a body other women would envy and men want…to do stuff to. But under that beautiful outer layer of Elsa was a completely train wreck of mental problems due to the trials and trauma she and Mac went threw over the years before Shan even meet the two…and some of the things they've been threw in Death Root.

Nowadays Elsa was starting to look sickly pale, instead majestic porcelain pale skin she usually has, her once silky hair was frizzy and unkempt, black hair mixed with the two white streaks that ran threw it. The large baggy T-Shirt's that she wore around the ship that once belonged to Mac and the black sweat pants screamed Elsa wasn't mentally or emotionally fine.

Usually Elsa could be found in one of two places on the ship these days, her room or down below deck in the lower levels of the ship.

Shan was just glad Elsa hasn't tried to kill herself……she did have to worry about Elsa trying to kill the others , Shan ordered the others to lock their doors while they slept…or at any moment there going to be alone in their rooms.

The other members of the crew Shan didn't have to worry about to much, they could take care of themselves…Shan did wonder where Mr. Poly wondered off to, she hasn't seen him in a week…crazy old man. Thankfully Kazuya and Penny haven't changed that much over the past month, Penny was training and Kazuya was still somewhat on rehab….his muscles were doing a lot better these days.

Penny K.D. Mabui aka 'Sunshine' was their teams youngest member and cook, and if you asked Penny she'll say she's also and I quote 'Mistress of all things sharp and pointy'. Over the past month Penny finally hit a growth spurt, the young blonde girl was now a few inches shorter than Shan. Penny has long blonde wavy hair and eyes that seemed to reflected and transmit here emotions perfectly. Penny's usually seen wearing a bright orange vast and long tight sundress, with short blue jean shorts underneath.

The effects puberty have started to show on the young girl, two weeks back Shan decided to give Penny the 'talk', and go over everything with the girl about what she knew and what she needed to know about becoming a young woman. The blonde girl never really had anyone to talk to and teach her while she grew up, since Penny could remember she's always been around men until she met Shan and Elsa…worse yet who knows what that blonde cyclops that's now on the Straw Hats crew could have taught her.

When Shan reached the subject of sex during there little talk Penny just laughed and said she wasn't a naïve little girl…and she's had her ear on the door when Elsa and Mac were going at it, once or twice with Kazuya, Razz, and Siamon when one of them brought a girl back from the bars when they went out drinking…Penny also commented on why Meku never brought any girls home even thou he usually went with them. Shan blushed slightly when Penny admitted she even watched her and Endo make love threw a crack in the door.

Shan decided to give Penny a level stare with a raised eyebrow, the blonde fidgeted for a few seconds before throwing her hands into the air yelled "What I was curious!"

Just like Penny, her pet Pan the panda seemed to have had a growth spurt over the last month also…he wasn't tiny anymore. For some reason he just grew, now coming up to her knee…when on all fours, and taller when on two legs. Shan warned Penny that since Pan has grown she'll have to exercise him now since he was to be a battle animal, and panda's these days seemed to end up lazy and…chubby, Pan growled at her for saying that.

This now just leaves us with the final remaining teammate, Kazuya. He really hasn't change much over the course of the month. His red eyes seemed to be getting more crimson , if that was even possible, and his blonde hair was getting longer. Like Elsa with the colors black and white, and Penny with yellow, Kaz always seemed to wear something that has red in it. His red coat was usually flowing in the wind from his perch in the crow's nest, which was one of the many reasons his codename is 'Crow'.

But at that very moment Shan was wondering just why the hell Kazuya was standing in her office "Why the hell are you in my office Mr.…" Shan paused, she wanted to sound professionally but there was a major flaw with that " …screw it, no one knows your last name Kazuya…why are you here?"

"It seems…we drifted off course when Elsa had that little fit of hers. Now it seems were off course AND now it may take awhile before we can reach that marine base island you wanted to search." Kazuya was staring at her oddly while he talked, she didn't understand why, she didn't think it really mattered in the first place.

Shan sighed "I'll handle it so don't worry…I'll handle everything…" Shan frowned at Kazuya "…and why are you staring at me like that?"

"It's just your breakfast request was rather odd…"

"It was just pancakes Kazuya…we haven't had those in a really long time."

"Yeah but you also wanted them to be peanut butter flavored with a pickle topping, smothered with tomato sauce…if I didn't know any better I'll say you where having those pregnancy cravings." Shan quickly stood up and pointed towards the door.

"Out! Get the hell out Kazuya before I kill you." she growled. Kazuya slowly backed out, hands up in defense, not wanting to make the violet haired leader angrier….even if he had no clue why she was now suddenly pissed at him.

"As for punishment for angering me, when we reach the next island…if we can…your helping me shop for Penny, from underwear to everything else a growing girl needs."

"Wha-" Shan slammed the door in his face, resting her back against it with a heavy sigh.

----X----

Shan finally left her office to patrol around the ship to check on the teams other two females, she just needed to remember where they were. From what she remembered Penny should still be trying to-

_CRASH_

_Damn it_… Hopefully Penny was okay, that girl was going to get herself kill one of these days while she practiced like that. Shan walked a little fast towards deck, faster than she originally intended to go…so she slowed down. She wasn't going to hurry it was Penny's fault in the first place if she was hurt. But…Shan needed to get there quickly…just in case.

Shan emerged onto deck, the dark clouds overhead suggesting that it'll be raining soon. In the middle of the deck, spread eagle with a panda looking down at her was Penny. Walking closer Shan tapped Pan with her foot signaling the panda to move, he understood.

Penny was smiling up at her, eyes sparkling "So how fast this time?"

The blonde laughed as she stood with Shan's help, a slight limp in her right "Reached sixty mph…Shan it was wonderful."

"You finally figured out your powers fully right?"

"Yep."

Shan pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose "And the high speeds, I'm sure your going to try and reach won't hurt you?"

"Not sure I'll tell you when I do." Penny laughed and started to levitate off of the ground, Shan pulled the girl down with a solid thud.

"Not until your legs healed…Pan make sure she doesn't and I'll give you as much steak as you can eat." the panda saluted, Penny whined "Ah come one!"

"No Penny…Also….Penny remember you and me are going shopping at the next island." Shan said as she walked away going to where she suspected Elsa would be.

"Awww….why?" Penny whined "I just want to keep training, I'm perfectly fine with going commando." Shan slapped her forehead.

"Penny I've told you before, you're a growing girl, you need these things…plus your out grown your clothes…the ones your wearing are very tight on you, am I right?"

Penny huffed "Yeah…then why didn't we buy some stuff at the last island?"

"Because Penny, that island didn't have a running bank since we took down there leader, plus even if we found one we wouldn't be able to exchange the large bills we have, that Duke weakened the economy to much." Penny gave a unladylike snort in anger while crossing her arms. Shan smiled as she walked, oh the joys of raising a budding teenager just when you yourself have just entered adulthood.

Shan's next stop, Elsa. Now that colored impaired woman was in either one of two places, her room or down in the lower holds where they stored things, more importantly that's where they stored the Turtle for future use…but they'll need Endo to get it out.

Stepping into the lift, pulling a leaver, the lift creaked to life and started traveling downward. After about a minute the lift shook to a stop and Shan exited. Shan was lucky Mac and Elsa's room was near all of the stuff down here….well after the move to this room, Mac built the room larger than the 'Captains Room' , which Shan now lived in.

Standing still for a second Shan listened to the sounds of the hallway, if Elsa was on this floor the sounds of metal on metal should be heard…she didn't hear anything so move to the stairs and going up one floor to where the room was located, knocking onto the door of Elsa's room.

"Go away…" a muffled growled from inside, Shan ignored it and walked in, ducking under the rather large scythe that was aimed at her head.

"Now that wasn't very nice Elsa."

"Get the hell out Shan." grumbled Elsa poking her out from under her bed covers "I really don't want to see someone like you right now." the growl Elsa added at the end of the sentence suggested Elsa was still pissed at her even thou it's been a month since Water 7.

"Gee Elsa I would have thought you would have forgiven me for saving your beautiful little ass from being captured, killed, or worse at the Lobby." Shan frowned while saying that, a somewhat sarcastic tone in her voice.

"I don't give a shit Tifihe, I'm still fucking pissed at you for not letting not letting me go after my Mel!" Elsa screamed back.

"Would you rather be locked up with him in whatever hellhole Mass Claw locked him in, and most likely raped by the marines that worked there!?"

"Yes!" Elsa screeched "If it means being with my Mel then stuck on this fucking ship with a complete bitch like you!" Elsa's covers flew into the air, the black haired girl launched at Shan wearing nothing but lace panties, and covered in fur due to quickly changing into her hybrid form. For those of you who didn't know Elsa Nativa AKA Death was a zoan Devil Fruit user, she ate the Usagi Usagi no mi: Model Snow which meant she was a snow rabbit zoan.

But unlike most zoan users Hybrid Form, which was usually the powerhouse point, Elsa hybrid form was naturally all speed. She was thin like usual, with tight muscles….again same as usual, but with the shift in appearance her muscles and bone structure also transformed making her body more animal like so she could reach speeds that aren't natural for humans, hell in her hybrid form her speed was faster than that move those…CP9 people used.

The white streaks that were in Elsa's hair where gone, replaced by two long rabbit ears…Shan remembered examining when she first found out about Elsa's powers…or to be more precise when they forced her to admit to eating a Devil Fruit. The white hair streaks believe it or not where connected right above Elsa's ears, it didn't look like it…but that's just the way Elsa styles her hair…so whenever Elsa shifts her human ears disappear and are replaced by two long rabbit ears.

Other than being a few inches taller, covered in short white fur, the large ears, the rabbit nose and teeth, and the hands and feet that looks lot like a rabbits paws, Elsa looked relatively the same.

Shan thought and observed all of that in the few milliseconds that it took Elsa to leap out of the bed at Shan. A few more milliseconds and thoughts wondering if Mac and Elsa ever used there hybrid forms, Mac was a Grizzly Bear zoan, in there many experiments during sex crossed Shan's mind…and also thoughts of what would it be like if Endo used his when they had sex (not passionate love making…the more primal one) he wasn't called a wood man for nothing…splinters may be a problem thou.

"_**Rabbit Punchy!**_" Elsa shrieked, fist moving in a blur. Shan ducked and round house kicked Elsa in the side, bringing the navigator out of the air and sailing over the bed landing on the floor with a solid thump.

Shan straighten herself, blowing a strand of her hair out of face. The low hissing growl that escaped from Elsa told her that the navigator wasn't done yet…and also to look up with rabbits can growl later.

It seemed…that it's finally come to the point where Elsa has become a problem. Shan hopped that Elsa would have worked in out herself…but it's finally come to that braking point, and Shan wasn't really in the position to be the voice or reason (due to her own problems). What was it that there now jail second in command, Siamon, say about handling subordinates when he worked for the marines that he liked but they were out of line…oh yes…tough love.

Elsa slowly stood, that dangerous gleam in her eye. Shan reached into her jacket pulling out a syringe, removing a rubber tip from the needle so it didn't poke her.

"I don't want to do this Elsa…when you wake up and calm down then we'll need to talk."

"Fuck you! It's all your fault things are the way they are, it's all because of _you_ that my Melcom isn't here right now by my side. It's your fault that they took away the two of the four people I let into my heart, my Mel and Razz, a man who's been more of a brother to me then my own two fucking n o good abandoning brothers!" Shan could see tears running down, and some getting stuck , Elsa's fur.

But due to Elsa mental stability at that moment and her unstable emotions that tear inducing depression the girl was in quickly changed back into pure rage, pure aggression.

Elsa leapt and spun in the air, kicking wildly, directly at Shan _**"Rapid Rabbit Stomp!"**_ Elsa yelled feet a blur.

Shan ducked and spun out of the way keeping her left foot firmly on the ground, right leg in the air, bringing it down quickly on Elsa in a Guillotine Axe Kick.

Elsa gasped in pain slamming chin and chest first into the cold wooden planks of the floor. Shan was on Elsa's back instantly pinning the taller yet younger girl to the ground, the syringed with the sedative in the rabbit girls neck "Shhhh…relax my friend…close your eyes….we'll talk when you wake." she whispered soothingly into Elsa's long ear.

"Take a breather…" Elsa's muscles relaxed as she reverted back to her human form. Shan sighed as she hefted Elsa onto her shoulder, stumbled a little and left the room.

"Lets get some clothes on you girl." Shan thought it may be a good idea to get Elsa out of the room that brought Elsa so many memories…so to Shan's room it is, even thou her clothes may be a little tight on Elsa, the girl was taller and bigger in the chest area.

So Shan walked, tears trailing down her expressionless face.

----(**Green Isle-Lords Palace**)----

"Your telling me those wrenched rebels actually managed to take over the north guard post!?" yelled a rather sickly pale man in clothes that looked five times to big for him. His hair hung around his face and his large hook nose and beady black eyes made him look just plain intimidating even with his small stature.

"Yes…Yes sir, we seem to have underestimated there leader." stuttered a soldier, his armor seemed to be a random assortment of pieces picked up from around….places.

"That bloody fish woman bartender!" the pale man, Lord Bran, growled standing up, his bones seemed to snap and pop as he moved.

"Happy…get on the underground mushi and get me assassins, bounty hunters, mercenaries……something! That fucking bartender needs to BE DEAD!"

"Yes sir, right away sir." the soldier known as Happy chirped running out of the room.

Bran laughed darkly to himself, soon he'll own every piece of land on this island, force it's people into enslavement if they didn't pay…his laughter only grew.

----X----

_Beri…beri beri…beri beri beri_

Kazuya jerked awake and sighed picking up the Mushi receiver "Hello?"

"Oh um…yes are you for hire?"

Kazuya blinked at the blunt question "That depends on what you want exactly…where not prostitutes if that's what your looking for." Before Water 7, Endo did get some informants who where whores, and a few brothels on the payroll….and Shan is putting them to good use, they can get information and blackmail…but this guy didn't need to know that.

"No…no….we need…um fighters." the voice on the other line said.

"Then yes, yes we are. What's the job?" Kazuya got a notepad and a pen. He hated mushi duty but if no one did it they wouldn't have any work.

"My boss…needs um…people to…um take care of a rebel force….um on his island."

"That's within are current abilities sir. Now if you would give me your islands latitude and longitude we'll be there as fast as we can." Kazuya cursed to himself, he was starting to sound like one of those mushi marketers, he hated those people.

"We aren't that…um fare away, we…um were using a short signal."

"Just give me the islands location please…and you'll talk to my boss when we get there about price."

"Um…yes it's-'

----X----

Shan sat at the edge of her bed watching Elsa sleep…or at least struggle back into the conscious world. Brushing a strand of black hair off the girls forehead, Shan gave a true smile, even if Elsa couldn't see it, Shan hoped the younger girl could feel the love behind it. Shan loved Elsa like a sister, she'll do anything for the girl…even if it means kicking the girls ass or comforting her when she's an emotional wreck. Shan now knew the answer to why she ignored Elsa's problems…because she has her own problems to work out.

But from here on out she's going to care for Elsa like any loving sister would…because she owed Elsa her life…from way back then. Elsa was one of four people who rescued her from her evil father…well it was more Shan poisoning her evil father, running away, somehow running into someone and falling unconscious with her father somehow living threw the poisoning. Shan laughed at herself when she remembered back then, it was late at night and she woke up next to a strange blonde haired boy, she screamed and three people come crashing into the room very awkwardly, a pretty and leggy black haired girl, a…very large boy, and a fish man…

Kazuya burst into the room, just as Shan was cupping Elsa's cheek pausing in mid step. Shan raised a thin eyebrow at the blonde haired red eyed man.

"What do you want Kazuya? I'm watching over Elsa right now."

Kazuya blinked a few times and shook his head trying to banish all thoughts of the perverted girl on girl thoughts he was having…sadly he failed "Oh…" he coughed "…Yes. I got us a job offer from the mushi's."

"Does it take us off course…more."

"No, from what I can tell from Elsa's maps, and that huge Global Positioning Post Elsa and Mac invented it really isn't that far, maybe just an hour or two south west." Kaz then pointed at Elsa "But we're going to need her awake we go anywhere."

Shan sighed looking back as Elsa "She'll be up soon."

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**Have any questions about this chapter, just ask in the review and I'll answer to the best of my abilities.** **As you guys can see I'm going to try to make this fic live up to it's M rating…with out any lemon's you perverts. But also since it's M I'm going to try to take this into a dark place that isn't really seen in most OP related things that doesn't mean just gore, I'm also not going to go easy or skim over certain words/nudity/and other M related material (again I'm not writing lemons you perverts…if Endo and Mac were in this story then you'll get a little…nothing lemony…just some of the stuff before and after said lemon action)**

**Now with Penny, I getting annoyed sometimes when in story's that have a child character in it's cast of mostly adult characters, and the story goes over an undefined amount of time, which is most lily month/years, never show the child grow. So I'm showing Penny grow, and somewhat mature (into kind of a female Endo) she's becoming a young woman, she's going to have a few boyfriends over the years…yes I know Penny's pairing is with Austin from Crew of the Axe, but Penny and Austin haven't defined there relationship yet plus there kids…I want there relationship to more realistic, and as that Penny and Austin story I tried to do way back shows that Penny and Austin won't officially get together until there 17/18 or 18/19. Don't worry fans Penny and Austin will have there moments when there teens and pre-teens…when ever the two groups meet.**

**I also see teenage Penny turning into somewhat of a rebel, with black mascara an eyebrow piercing and a bellybutton ring…I mean come on look who's she's raised by Elsa who's basically what you call a 'cheerful Goth', Endo who's a psycho, and Meku…do I really need to explain that one?**

**So read and review…and next chapter the remaining four DR's get to play Villain. **


	3. Angel on the Island I

**I Don't own One Piece. The first scene is somewhat threw the eyes of a three year old, so if it seems a bit 'childlike' then you'll know why.**

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_Chapter 3: Angel on the Island part 1_

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A stumble, a fall, laughter, a very horrible smell. That's all the very young three year old child knew as she climbed over trashcans and junk, stumbling in her walking every now in then as she tried to navigate her way threw the alleyways. Her Auntie, when ever the child tried to call her mother the woman usually replied somewhat harshly that she wasn't her mother, said not to wander far…but she saw this kitty…. and it was fluffy.

The small child giggled, she'll find the kitty and then she'll hug it and pet it and never let it go. If she couldn't get the kitty she'll just get Auntie to get her one…maybe one with big teeth….grrrr.

The alley she was in was smelly and next to and equally smelly building, with a bunch of armored people drinking that stuff that Auntie, Moxxi, and Nine and all of her other friends like to drink all the time. It burned her nose and made her head hurt…she didn't like it.

"Kitty!?" the three year old called, and was sure the kitty was here, she saw it go into the trashcan. Small tears started to brim around her eyes, the little girl let out a small sniff…she wanted that kitty…but it wasn't there.

Whipping her nose on her sleeve the little girl stumbled and shuffled back at the alley and looked up at the street sign…she could read yet, but the shapes seemed to be familiar, maybe if she followed them she'll be able to get back home.

"Well, well what do we have here?" an armored man slurred stumbling out of the stinky building with his friends.

"It seems we have a baby fish-freak like that rebel."

"Your right buddy…but something seems…off about her." Yes the child was a fish person. Her skin was silver in color and her hair was somewhat messy, black in color, and her clothes looked baggy and worn out, she even had all the things that pointed her out as a shark fish person, gills, fins, very sharp teeth. But what the man meant by odd was other than the teeth the three year old girl's face didn't have any fish person quality's to it…her face seemed very very human.

The girl was shaking her Auntie told her not to talk to strangers, and if they tried to touch her blow her whistle…the girl quickly took her whistle out of her pocket, just in case.

"You think this little bitch belongs to the rebels?" the third of the men said following that comment with a burp.

"Who cares it'll still send a message to that woman, there of the same species." the first man reached out his hand to grab the three year old "Come here poppet."

The girl screeched and snapped out sinking her teeth into the man's hand, the soldier gave a yell in pain, the girl backed up and started to run, the whistle in her mouth blowing away.

"Son of a bitch!" he looked at his two friends "Well? Get the bitch!"

The three armored men gave chase, and the girl was getting breathless it was hard to run and blow a whistle at the same time, she tripped. Her whistle popping out of her mouth and bouncing away from her, the tears where coming back, her knee's hurt…she started to cry.

"Well lookie here boys seems the little pest fell, oh boohoo." the one she bit laughed, his friends followed along in the laughter…well until man number three gagged due to a large blade sticking out of his chest.

"Wha-"

"Auntie!" the fish-girl cheered, tears still dripping down her cheeks. One and Two spun around, taking steps backward to prevent from being attacked from behind. They may have been roaring drunk but their soldier instincts kicked in right then.

Standing behind them, standing at 7'9 in height was a rather pissed off fish-woman, green eyes turning into a fiery orange, the same color as her hair, a dark orange some would consider red, her skin a sandy brown color. She wore a white tank top under a royal blue denim vest, baggy black cargo pants held up with a chain belt, studded spike wrist bands and a black headband with a gold dragon on it tied around her head her hair went past her shoulders and in a loose ponytail. Her fins are more angled on her upper arms and instead of the middle of the back her fin is on her upper back.

In her one hand was a bloody machete and on her knuckles were brass knuckles. She spun the blade between her fingers, murder showing in her eyes.

"What kind of men are you to attack a minnow like that little sweety."

"It's the Angel!" shouted man number two, the young girl rubbed her ears…the bad man didn't have to yell.

"Who gives a shit, we'll get a promotion for sure if we kill this bitch." man number one charged forward, followed by a rather shaky man number two.

The fish-woman referred to as Angel launched forward with a low growl "_Jet Slash!_" she spun in the air, machete cutting into One rather hard, separating the man's shoulders from his body. With another twist of her body Angel slammed her heels into the face of Two, the man flew backward head cracking against a buildings wall knocking him unconscious.

A smooth movement of an arm latter Angel's machete was safely secured onto her back as she knelt down to pick up the young fish girl "Hey young one…how are you feeling?"

The three year old sniffed, rubbing her large bright eyes with a small hand "My…my knee's hurt." she sniffed.

A smile tugged at the lips of Angel "Just rest your head on my shoulder and I'll get you a band-aid when were back home…then we need to have a talk about going off alone, got that my little minnow?"

"Auntie don't call me thaaaaaaaat!" the girl fussed half heartedly, already starting to fall asleep on Angel's shoulder.

"Okay young one…" Angel chuckled when a small snore escaped the little girl, it was funny when a kid so cute snored "…you just rest up Destiny we'll be home soon."

----X----

_Click Click Click_

Shan straightened her lab coat and blew a strand of violet hair out off of her glasses. Elsa intimidating for in her 'Death' persona loomed over her shoulder, like a silent shadow promising harm if anyone came to close. They had a great discussion last night, nothing that needed to be revealed to the public, secrets needed to be kept. Elsa was still acting close to the same, distant on land and emotional and withdrawn on the ship. But Shan made the girl promise no more tantrums, and if she needed anything to help her coop with the lost of Mac, for now, Shan promised she'll do anything or get anything Elsa needed.

Shan didn't want Elsa to finally lose control of her emotions entirely and either do one of three things, go on a dangerous spiral of drinking, drugs, and sex with random faceless people, commit suicide, or going on a killing spree until she's either dead or reunited with Mac. Shan hopped if any of those happened that it would be the third path, at least killing is something Elsa does anyway…thou a lot less random.

Now Shan tapped her foot dangerously, the two of them have been knocking on the castles gates for five minutes. The man who contacted them seemed to have forgotten to meet them, but with the little Intel she managed to gather about what's happening on the island Shan already knew who wanted to hire them…yes she's that good at information gathering.

"Shan?" the near silent whisper of Elsa's voice drifted to Shan's ear, which cased the violet head to glance at the girl from the corner of her eye.

"Yes?"

"Can I stay in your room tonight…?"

A small smile graced Shan's lips "Of course, I told you last night that I'll do anything to help you threw this time."

There was a brief pause "Thank you."

The gates creaked and out stumbled an odd looking soldier with multicolored armor that seemed pieced together from scavenged parts from other army's. The mans head glanced between the two women, well he seemed to check out Shan, and shake visibly at Elsa (probably thought she was a man) Shan smirked, simple male mind, underestimating a the woman and scared of the one they thought was the leader…which was probably one of the reasons there have so much trouble with this 'Green Isle Angel'.

"Um…are you some of the mercenaries we hired?"

"Yes, we are the Death Root Mercenaries. I am the current leader…Dark Heart and this is my…shadow Death." replied Shan with a icy cold tone, that suggested that if he continued to undress her with his eyes….he wouldn't be a man anymore.

The soldier started to breath fast in nervousness, eyes somewhat wide in surprise "I'm, um, Happy, I'll take you to…um…Lord Bran…um…follow me."

Shan slowly followed the colorful solider, Elsa her every present shadow. The lord's castle…or mansion, she wasn't sure which. Shan has only seen one castle before, tons of mansions thou. The best she could describe the place was a odd combination of the worst of a castle and the best of a mansion.

Nothing happened in the halls as they walk, well other than Shan quickly smacking Elsa's hand when she tried to steal a vase…and a painting…and some armor…from a guard on duty. She was happy that Elsa was showing some of her old self, just now _really_ wasn't a good time.

Happy seemed to twitch and spasm every now and then, mumbling to himself. Either the man's seen to many wars or this Bran has no psyche check when you sign up for duty.

"Um…We're here." mumbled Happy as he pushed open a somewhat large jewel encrusted door with a large portrait painted in the center, Shan blinked, a small smile tugging on her lips.

"Yep there's no way this guy is full of himself…" sarcasms dripping in, her mumbled voice seemed to reach Elsa's ears who let a snort of humor.

The throne room was roomy yet filled with so much stuff it just made you feel uncomfortable. Standing, well leaning while coughing, next to his throne chair was Lord Bran, a rather sickly looking man that seemed if you look at him wrong he'll break.

Bran sneered "Where's the rest?"

Shan gave the man a level look, the light glancing off of her glasses " We're more than enough for whatever simple problem you have."

Bran growled "Simple? We have rebels that need to be destroyed." a small smirk quickly flicked on Shan's lips you would have mistaken it for a trick of the shadows she just found out what there job was without having to sign a contract.

"Yes simple…Death?" Shan stuck out her hand and a scroll appeared there, she tossed it to Bran "This is our contract. It has what we won't do, what you need to provide for us, and how much a small time job like this will cost, got it?"

Bran growled and scanned over what the scroll contained, signed his name at the bottom "Well talk about price after I see the kind of job you do woman."

"Won't expect it any other way…now what do you want us to do?"

Bran grinned.

----X----

The fish woman referred to as Angel slid quietly into her rebels main base, not wanting to wake the young child sleeping on her shoulder…and some of the odder rebels that where hopefully asleep right now.

Now the islands rebels where a small yet powerful group, consisting of around one hundred basic soldiers, two generals, and their leader…Angel herself. Sadly thou they use to have more, most of there generals and soldiers where killed off of died in battle, both mostly Bran and his men's fault.

Angel shifted the little girl on her shoulder, Destiny snuggled into her shoulder more and started to chew on the fish woman's shirt in her sleep. Like she told Destiny she wasn't the girls mother, they weren't even blood related, but Angel felt a small connection to the girl, plus she had to fulfill a promise to an old friend.

Destiny was a hybrid of human and fish person, her mother a human, father a fish man. The young girls mother was a dark red haired woman around twenty five years old woman that went by the name Thunder.

Thunder helped Angel start the rebel army already pregnant, maybe two months along, she wasn't an island resident but when she set foot on the island she quickly announced that what was happening on the island was wrong. So the rebels where started.

With her fiery personality and deadliness in battle she and Angel became quick friends. As months passed Angel started to take more duty's as Thunder's heath worsened and stomach grew. It got to the point where the woman couldn't get out of bed without endangering her child.

The child finally came, and surprisingly it wasn't a child…it was three. Riptide, Destiny, and Long where there names. Thunder held Angel's hand and told her that she knew she was going to die, and have triplets for a while now. She's already found good homes for the boys Riptide and Long, but the birth came to fast for her to find someone for her little girl, Thunder's last words to Angel where-

"_Protect my girl, and when the time comes and you find the right people… a family, somewhere where she can fit it, people that can train her and protect her when needed. Someone who would treat her as their own even thou she isn't blood."_

Thunder died that day on her children's, Riptide and Long where taken to the soon to be care takers, and Destiny stayed with her…that was a little over three years ago.

Angel tucked Destiny into, as the girl put it 'big girl bed', there was a clatter just outside of the door and Angel whirled around and smiled. Standing at the door was a human woman around five' eight in her (and Angel knew for a fact was somewhere in her thirties no matter how she looked), bright red lips stretched into a broad smile. Her face was thin and angular, covered in white makeup, on her cheeks pink circles. Purple eye shadow around her eyes styled in a way that made it look like she was crying purple tears.

The woman was great shape with the body of a twenty year old ,wearing a red/dark red pin strip suit that was way to small for her. Her breast looked ready to pop out, and the suit top didn't button up all the way showing a great amount of cleavage and part of the woman's bra, so you could easily see the heart tattoo on her left breast. Her hair was a long dark brown that reach her mid back and resting on top of her head was a dark red top hat.

The woman's bright green eyes seemed to shine with mischief as she watched Angel "It's so nice to see your cute ass taking care off a baby sweet lips."

Angel just groaned "Moxxi…don't curse near Destiny. She's still able to pick up things even when she's asleep."

Angel was used to Mad Moxxi's teasing, that was just how the woman was. Before the rebellion Moxxi had two jobs, she was the owner of the islands best brothel and she ran what people called the 'Coliseum' , where fighters could test there skill against criminals and vise-versa and even had a line that she said whenever fights got really good she would yell 'Did I promise a show or didn't I!? Who loves ya and who do you love!'.

Moxxi even had a daughter and son, Scooter and Scooter (the son was named after the daughter). The odd woman was one of Angel's generals, and a rather tactical mid when put right.

Moxxi pouted "Awwwwww…sweet lips, why ruin the fun for the squirt. She's going to use them for future conversation's anyway."

The fish woman chuckled ushering the woman out of Destiny's room "Out Moxxi…go get Nine-Toes and meet me in the conference room. We have much to discuss."

"Fine, you my be able to resist my wonderful charm with those deep…greens…' Moxxi paused "…of yours, but I know ol' Nine-toes won't be able to!" the red wearing woman waved "Tootles!"

Angel just laughed and headed for the conference room. It didn't take long to here some yelling.

"You woke the wrong dog! AWWW YEAHHHHH!"

"Oh quiet it your whining Nine, Angel needs us." said Moxxi as she enter the room followed by a tall man.

This man was shirtless, and rather fit, wearing bright orange pants and a white plaster mask, His hair was styled in a tall Mohawk and his shoulders where protected with spiked shoulder pads. Strapped to his leg was a red automatic pistol with the words 'Do not drop on foot…again' scratched on its side. Hanging around his waste right over his crouch was a diamond shaped yellow sign with the words 'Safety First'.

"Moxxi, Nine sit down I want to go over a plan of mine with you."

"Sure sweet lips, I just know it will be fantastic."

"It better, this dog needs his beauty sleep."

Angel waved her hand "You can bet your third ball on it Nine, I just want to run it past you two, I need to know if it's to risky."

"You got it Hun, but I want to know if you heard about Bran bringing outside help to fight us." asked Moxxi.

Nine laughed " I saw them, they didn't look to intimidating. Thou that one woman reminding me of mine mother…I hate my mother."

Angel sighed however "Yeah I have…and this plan came around when I heard these people where being called in…here's what we're going to do…"

The three sat there talking for hours, with Angel talking about her plans, odd comments from Moxxi, and the occasional rude and/or insane comment from Nine-Toes.

"…and if everything goes as planned…this town will be free buy the end of this week" a smile was now on Angel's lips.

Nine was laughing "I'm gonna skin them! Put on there face and say Hi to their momma's!"

"Seems like you agree Nine….Moxxi?"

"I think I just spilled something on my dress, damn it!" Moxxi was scrubbing her dress not even paying attention to Angel.

"Moxxi!"

"Oh yeah and nice plan…whatever…damn stain."

Angel just shook her head and turned away from the two _Lord Bren…you days are number…_

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**Okay first things first, yes that is the same Destiny from DS's Saw story's….for the most part anyway. Why is she hear? Well I wanted to have the Siamon X Destiny pairing in my story, but I couldn't bring her in the normal way due to certain reasons, so I made her older by three years and changed her mother (with the permission of my great friend DS). So their will be a FUTURE Si x Des pairing, but not in this time if or when I do a future fic then the Si Des pairing will be shown, cause come on people Destiny is only three years old in this time right now.**

**Now the character of Destiny's mother that is mentioned is up for grabs from anyone…who's crossed over with my fic…or crossed over with someone who crossed over with me…you know part of the OP universe Death Root is based in.**

**I also would like to say the characters of Moxxi and Nine Toes don't belong to me, they belong to the game Borderlands. I just loved these two characters so much that I just had to put them it…thou Nine and Moxxi are reference's to movies also like Mad Max and Running Man (if you've seen them you've seen some hints in some of the things they did or how Nine looks).**

**Now lets summarize what we've seen this chapter: We meet Angel and Destiny. Shan and Elsa meet Lord Bran. And We are introduced to the other main players in the rebel forces Mad Moxxi and Nine Toes.**

**It was short sweet and got the needed info out so I don't have to revel much in a future chapter.**

**Fun fact when I made this arc Lord Bran didn't have a name. But when I was typing the last chapter I was eating a bran muffin sooooooooo….. **

**So Read and Review people I know your there!**

**P.S. I'm dedicating this chapter my friend DS. Thank you again for letting me use Des and for proof reading the first to scenes of this chapter and helping me correct the mistakes.**


	4. Angel on the Island II

**Don't own One Piece**

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_Chapter 4: Angel on the Island part 2_

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Shan walked slowly threw the streets of the town, it was mostly covered in people on the lord's pay roll or had some sort of job at the palace. She's already picked the spot for the group to meet, Elsa went to retrieve Penny and Kazuya.

Thoughts filled her head about their contract with Bran, he wanted to 'not see' this 'Angel' again along with her co-leaders and 'have them taken care of '.

Now Shan knew what she needed to do, and it was a perfect time to test something in the field that she's been wanting to use ever sent she found out about it from Poly.

Her hands clenched, she now understood how her father lived when she tried to kill him way back when. She also now understood why she's never know her mother, and also why her father tortured her all of her life, Tifihe blood never had daughters. She was an oddity, something that shouldn't have been.

That thought made Shan smirk, she fits in with the other members of Death Root better than she thought. The insane spawn of a long line of criminals, a fish man the shouldn't have lived threw his injuries, a couple with mental issues that where created by the people said to protect the innocent, a man that can speak 100 languages yet had no land to call home, an blind man who shouldn't even be alive, a silent man with no past, a young girl that somehow lived threw her tragic life, and a hunter who cut all the connections in his life and just…hunted.

She was glad she fit in better, and glad her families curse will help her in the end. But the next time she lays eyes on her father again…she'll kill him, and cry a little after she did it, he was still her father, and even if she hated to admit it if it wasn't for him she would have never have met Endo. Who oddly enough was his captain's grandson.

Just then something crashed into her leg, leveling a cold spot on her pants, Shan looked down. There was a big glob of ice cream on her pant leg, and in front of her was a young fish girl sitting on her bottom where she fell. The young girl looked up at Shan slightly afraid.

"Sorry miss…"

Shan smiled and crouched down to the girls level "It's okay sweetheart…" the violet haired woman looked around "…where are your parents."

"Auntie said she had to go somewhere…told me to wait on that bench with my ice-cream …but…but I have to go potty…"

Shan gave a gentle smile and held out her hand to the girl "Well lets take care of that little problem, and we'll wait right here for your Aunt okay."

"Okay…I'm Destiny."

"Nice to meet you Destiny, I'm Shan."

----X----

Bran laughed, if the mercenaries did their jobs then his problems should be solved very soon. That Angel has been a thorn in his side for long enough.

"Um…Sir?"

"Yes? What is it Happy?"

"Um…it…seems…um that Angel has a little girl."

Bran paused "Really? That's very…interesting."

Happy shook where he stood " Um…do you want us to do something."

Bran waved him off "No…have the merc's kidnap the girl if the opportunity presents itself. We might as well get our money's worth. We're paying them enough."

"Got it sir."

Might as well have a back up plan just in case, can't be to careful.

----X----

A soft _ping_ like sound filled that air as Kazuya released another arrow, regular nothing special. He was just hitting certain spot's on the rebel base, drawing their curiosity. Hoping that a group of them would come and investigate.

He found this base right after Elsa came to find him and Penny, Kazuya went off on his own while Penny and Pan went with Elsa. Now he didn't expect to find one of there more 'secret' bases so quickly, but hell he's been in a few wars, he's seen places a lot better disguised then this.

Thou they may not be trying to hide, all the city's inhabitants that didn't work for the Lord hated the man so they basically loved the rebels, used them as a symbol for hope…Kazuya didn't enjoy destroy a people's hope, but a job was a job.

_Ah…people…good. _Kazuya put down his single shot bow, reached behind himself and lifted an already strung bow that he made especially suited for how good he was with arrows…this one shot five arrows at once.

"_Destruction Arrow Salvo._" he whispered, five arrows shot out. His Destruction arrows where special, unlike the name suggested the things where made for knocking out people, with enough force one could bring a elephant down.

The arrows hit home, the five rebels that came out to investigate where all slammed into the wall, knock out…they'll have monstrous headaches when they wake up…hopefully…he may have hit them a little too hard.

Elsa did say for this job make sure their aren't many casualties, Shan's orders not Elsa's…if it was Elsa all of these people would already be dead, it was up to their employer and his men to do most of the killing if that is needed.

Kazuya's job was simple, find a place to perch and be a sniper, take out as many of their forces as he could. Elsa was tasked with finding and neutralizing the rebel generals and leaders, Shan said she'll deal with this Angel and to signal her if they see her, and Penny was….suppose to be watching his ba-

"Whacha dooooooiiiinnngg?" Penny asked suddenly popping up at his side making Kazuya nearly fall out of his perch.

"Sunshine what the hell, trying to concentrate here."

Penny huffed looking up at Kaz, he was perched in a rather tall tree hidden somewhat in a small forest, which was on a small him. Penny was standing right at the base of the tree.

"What your doing isn't exactly rocket surgery Crow, I'm bored down here, and if Death wasn't going insane she'll say you using so many arrows just to shoot at a building is a waste of her money."

"I bought the materials to make these arrows with my own money."

"And you owe her a lot of money in gambling debts."

"Touché…not like you have any better idea's."

"Actually I do…" replied Penny seeing another group of rebels walk out of the base, she marched with purpose into an open field, cupped her hands over her mouth, took in a deep breath and….

"HEY REBELS! WE'RE GONNA KIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL YAAAA!"

"Damn it Penny!"

----X----

Angel watched these two so called mercenaries ambush her soldiers. The blonde man with the arrows seemed like a standard merc, but the young girl was just to young, perky, and…bright to be considered a killer or a fighter for that matter.

The fish man got that alert from some of Moxxi's contacts within the city that some mercenaries where heading towards their base. Now Angel was camped out not to far away watching the two, and things just now started getting out of hand when the young girl reveled that they were even there in the first place. Her soldier's came pilling out, lead by Nine Toes who was firing his special gun, explosions of fire erupted on the hill and down bellow the archer merc's arrows started to explode in fire and smoke blinding everyone.

This was getting out of hand.

Plus she really need to get back to Destiny, she only expected to be go for five minutes…and this may take longer than that.

Making sure her knuckles where in the right spot, a pop of her neck and Angel was off into the direction of the archer. Angel was rather fast, faster than most fish man, being an ex-pirate and an ex-revolutionary. She could tell the archer merc was fast from his build, but he was perched in a tree and Angel didn't expect that much from that young girl.

Angel removed her blade from it's sleuth, tossed it in the air in front of her and punching it "_Large Dart!_"

Her blade speed forward, sadly the archer noticed it and fell backwards from the tree landing in a heap at it's base. With a long string of curses and a "Sunshine you where suppose to watch my back" followed by the reply from the girl "What your own back I don't want to get turned into Swiss cheese." that's around the time Angel reached the two.

Angel tried punching the blonde man on the ground, he rolled but she managed to smash his bow and a few of his arrows.

"Now that just wasn't nice…" she heard the man mutter.

Angel towered over the man "You've signed to the wrong side mercenary…"

"Hey Crow!"

"What!? Kind of in a life and death situation right now!"

"Now would be a great time to run!"

"No Shit!"

These two mercenaries where idiots…

----X----

Shan's back was pressed against the wall of a building close to the bench Destiny needed to meet her Auntie in. What the violet haired doctor was doing was waiting outside a small bathroom she found, Destiny has been in there for a few minutes.

"You didn't fall in did you kid?" the was a short pause and Shan got a responds.

"Another minute!"

Shan just smiled, she had patience…lots of it…if she didn't she probably would have jumped off the ship a long time ago.

"Hey miss!"

Shan's head turned to the side briefly to see one of Bran's soldiers running towards her, she gave a sigh, what else could Bran want they've already signed the contract and mapped out everything he needed them to do.

"What?" she answered coldly, the man stopped a few feet away from her and shivered. Seems these soldiers weren't trainer to face _real_ dangerous people.

"Uh…Lord Bran has another job for you…if you have the time that is…"

Blowing a loose strand of violet hair out of her eyes Shan gave the man a level stare "My people are looking, but at the moment I'm free what is it?"

"Well…we got Intel that Angel has a child with her, another fish just like her. Female, and answer's to Destiny…"

Shan gave a quick glance at the bathroom door and quickly looked back to the soldier "I'll go look for her, if I find her before I need to get to work then I send word…"

The soldier laughed nervously and ran away, Shan just smiled at the man as he ran…making people nervous was rather enjoyable for her.

A ringing reach her eyes and knowing exactly what it was answered her Mushi "You found her?"

"_Hehe yeah…well kind of…_" it was Penny.

"What do you mean kind of?"

"_Well Dark…she kind of….found Crow…and now she's trying to kill him…what do you want me to do?_"

"Let her bet some sense into him for a little while longer and then give her a message from me…" Shan gave Penny her message, hoping Penny gave it to Angel at the right moment and Kazuya wasn't killed in the process.

"Done!" A happy cheer called from her side, Shan looked down at the small fish girl, it was a smile that just made you feel warm inside.

"So did you actually get stuck?"

Destiny huffed and crossed her arms like she was insulted "No…"

Shan laughed and walked with the young girl over to the bench "Okay, okay…So Destiny tell me about yourself and I'll tell you about a strong and tough fish man who's like an older brother to me."

"Really?"

"Yep."

Destiny just smiled. The two just sat on that bench and talked, and if Penny did what Shan told her…she was also waiting on Angel.

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**Yeah I know this chapter came out faster than usual. Also I'm sorry it's so short, but I barely have anything left for this arc, I know I have a least two fights, and those will be in the next two chapters.**

**Look forward to two more chapters from me for this this month….hopefully I can get them out. And if things go as planned I'll have summer classes to do so that's why I'm going to try to update a lot…don't know how that's going to go thou lol.**

**Read and Review.**


	5. Angel on the Island III

**Don't own One Piece. Or the Song in this chapter isn't owned by me either…and it really doesn't have a point I just felt like putting it in here, it's called 'Skullcrusher Mountain' …add on that it's Endo's favorite romantic song.**

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_Chapter 5: Angel on the Island part 3_

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Penny winced, which was followed by a loud crack filling that air, followed by more laughter from Penny. It was rather enjoyable for her to watch Kazuya try and fight off Angel when he couldn't to anything but dodge while he was in close range, bet he wished he had his swords now.

But it was his fault they where stolen in the first place.

Okay…it was Sanders fault but it was just more fun to blame Kaz.

Which just happened to be Penny's new favorite personal motto 'If you get in trouble blame Kazuya…even when Kazuya is the one that your in trouble with.'

"Damn it Sunshine help me over here!"

The girl turned her head and started to examine a tree "Huh what can't hear you from _all_ the way over her Crow…" if Pan was here than he would surely enjoy Kazuya suffering at the hands of this fish woman. But he was off having fun with Elsa…killing stuff…damn…lucky ass panda.

So here she was, sitting….nothing to do.

"Sunshine fucking help me!"

Nope absolutely nothing to do.

"At least toss me by single shot!"

Still nothing…if her brother was here he'll have something to do, he could have thought of something…or at least brought some popcorn.

"Help!"

Now there was something that she needed to do….something Shan wanted done…uh…um…damn her attention spa- hey look a crazy dude with a gun….AWSOME!

"Hey you masked dude! Over here!" Penny called, Nine-Toes paused on his fast trek towards where Kazuya and Angel were.

He blinked behind his masked at the young blonde girl before laughing "You remind me of my mother girl!"

Penny smiled "Aw that's sweet masked man with gun."

"…I ate my mother."

Penny paused "Oh…really…." at that moment Nine would have betted that the girl would have ran away……but she didn't, she actually took out a notepad "My chief sprit has gotten me curious…what do humans taste like?"

Nine toes scratched his chin…with his gun…the one with the really sharp blade on it,…yeah "Surprisingly not like chicken."

"…not…like…chicken…Okay next question, where did you get that cool sign that represents how you handle things but also with an ironic sexual innuendo due to where you placed it?"

Nine just laughed and sat down, this girl may just be as insane as he is. Penny sat a few feet away from Nine, notepad still out "Funny story that, it all started when I was trying to figure out a way to go uphill while going downhill without walking backwards…"

----X----

Kazuya was not having a very good day. First he stray toothpaste in his eye when he woke up, the hot water heater was broken and he had to fix it…Shan scolded him for when the thing exploded and shoot threw three of the ships floors. Elsa then dropped kicked him for putting a hold in 'Mel's ship' as she called it. Then Penny decided to play a prank on him by replacing the chocolate chips in his pancake breakfast with laxatives…he enjoyed the breakfast but the end result was not pretty.

Later that day he was paired with Penny to hunt rebels, Pan bit him and motioned that if Penny was harmed he'll cut Kazuya's through in his sleep…sometimes that panda just plan scared him. Then he was stung by a bee on his way over…or so he thought…it may have been Penny poking him with a needle, still painful…actually he was sure it was Penny now, she was talking about learning acupuncture the other day.

Which has all lead up to the second worse thing that has happened today, getting attacked by a very hot fish woman that was most likely at least twice his age, thou only looked at least two years older. There was a reason this was only second worst…his eye still hurt…fucking toothpaste.

Kazuya fell to his back and rolled to the side as Angel's fist shattered the ground next to his head, Angel grunted in frustration.

Angel has landed a hit on this Crow quite a few times, but they where more glancing blows or somehow weakened by an outside force, it was actually starting to frustrate her. Her strongest punches, the this blonde mercenary just kept on dodging, not a single attack. To make matters either better or worse for her his friend or whatever, that girl wasn't helping…but Crow always kept reminding her that the blonde girl was there which had Angel looking over her shoulder a few times.

"Will you stop dodging."

"Hell no you'll kill me!"

"That's the entire point!"

"Well to bad I don't want to die!"

Angel growled under her breath, she was starting to get a headache just like her little brother used to get (he told her a few years back) when he dealt with annoying people, or soldiers that just planned frustrated you.

So she went to plan B, backed up while cracking her knuckles and slammed her fist into the ground "_Shattering Earth!_ "

The earth shook, the ground around Kazuya started to shake "Wha-ahhhhh!" and a hole opened up underneath him.

"Ow…" Kazuya rub his head, he was now at the least four feet into the ground " Now this is just plain inconvenient…"

Angel stood above him with her blade that she somehow retrieved "Any last wishes mercenary?" she growled.

"Uh…yeah…for you not to kill me…"

"No can do."

"Then how about a three minute head start to run away."

"No."

"Sunshine!" Kazuya shouted.

"Talking!" now that was an answer that Angel wasn't expecting to hear from Crow's friend, so against her better judgment she looked over her shoulder and sweat dropped.

"Nine!"

"Talking!"

Angel growled and turned back to Kazuya, when the blonde girl final yelled something that wasn't just to ignore the man that was now stuck in a hole "Everyone STOP!" Angel did.

"I have something important our boss told me I needed to tell Angel…but I…don't exactly remember what it was at this very moment…"

"Come the fuck on Sunshine I'm about to be stabbed over here!"

Penny just sat where she was tapping her chin "Ah yes now I remember, she has that little fish girl…"

"Destiny!" screamed Angel, panic clearly on her face.

"Yeah! That's the name!" Penny replied cheerfully "Anyway she said after Crow had some fun-"

"You call this fun! I'm stuck in a hole!"

"Yes I do call that fun…Oh…the boss wants to meet you, Angel, at the bench where you're going to meet Destiny at in about twenty minutes…give or take nineteen."

With Kazuya forgotten Angel started speeding towards the town, hell bent on getting to Destiny.

----X----

Happy GoLuck shook in his multi-colored armor, he wasn't suppose to be here in the rebels base. He shouldn't have been there…he just thought that…it didn't matter at the moment…he just needed to get out.

Rebel's yelled a screamed around him, they didn't notice one of Bran's soldier's standing in their hallways. No there where bigger threats to deal with, or runaway from depending on if you wanted to die or live to see the next day. It seemed one of the generals left to deal with the problems outside while Angel was elsewhere and the third general was…somewhere within the building.

His blade was out of it's sheath, and ear's open. Happy didn't want to be attacked by a rebel or any other force. He also didn't want to die without meaning or the reason he joined Bran's army would have been thrown out the window, plus Bran has a great dental plan.

There was a scream, down the hallway was a group of rebel's with fear evident on their faces. Without thinking Happy ran, didn't matter if he was scared or about to shit his pants. He saw his chance and he needed to take it.

"Move!" Happy yelled, the sound of a blade slicing threw flesh was what filled his ears…and Happy was no more.

----X----

The low growl that Pan let loose as he tore the throat out of one of the rebels brought a smile to Elsa's lips, it reminded her so much of her Melcom. Her scythe cut down two more rebels as she calmly walked down the halls of the rebels base, at least the sight and smell of the crimson liquid cheered her up, it brought back memory's.

It also made her wonder what sex in a blood filled pool felt like.

But Elsa didn't want either her or Mel to catch any diseases…a pool filled with that much blood has to have a few diseases floating around. Maybe a tub…after they tested the blood.

Maybe see if Shan has anything that could protect from diseases…her and Mel did get bloody in fights…so did the others.

Another rebel was killed and Elsa hardly noticed, it was almost second nature using her large scythe and killing things, even when her weapon of choice was a large blade on a long pole and she was fighting in close quarters she was trained enough and had enough experience with this weapon to know how to use it in anyway.

At this very moment a song that Razz played was stuck in her head, it was also Endo's favorite romantic song for some odd reason, so Elsa started to whistle while she worked, the words playing in her head.

_Welcome to my secret lair on Skullcrusher Mountain _

_I hope that you've enjoyed your stay so far _

Her blade severed the head of one rebel and the torso of another. Pan was chewing happily on an arm he got from…someplace…she didn't remember cutting someone's arm off.

_I see you've met my assistant Scarface His appearance is quite disturbing _

_But I assure you he's harmless enough _

_He's a sweetheart, calls me master _

_And he has a way of finding pretty things and bringing them to me _

A high jump, thankfully the ceiling's where high enough, and an upward slash cutting one man in two strait up the middle, blood spurted onto her cloak and mask…well…damn…she'll have to do some cleaning later today. After her talk with Shan that is, until Mel has returned the violet haired doctor was her life line.

_I'm so into you _

_But I'm way too smart for you_

_Even my henchmen think I'm crazy _

_I'm not surprised that you agree _

_If you could find some way to be _

_A little bit less afraid of me _

_You'd see the voices that control me from inside my head _

_Say I shouldn't kill you yet _

One rebel tried to surprise Elsa from attacking from the side, he was to close for her to move the scythe. Elsa's leg shot out for her cloak breaking the man's kneecap, he yelled in pain…well until Elsa's rapid punch smashed his head into the wall.

_I made this half-pony half-monkey monster to please you _

_But I get the feeling that you don't like it _

_What's with all the screaming? _

_You like monkeys, you like ponies _

_Maybe you don't like monsters so much _

_Maybe I used too many monkeys _

_Isn't it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you? _

Pan chomped into another rebel, one of the last ones in this area, seemed like they where wising up and getting smarter. Stay away from deadly masked person with scythe…good plan.

_I'm so into you _

_But I'm way too smart for you _

_Even my henchmen think I'm crazy _

_I'm not surprised that you agree _

_If you could find some way to be_

_ A little bit less afraid of me _

_You'd see the voices that control me from inside my head _

_Say I shouldn't kill you yet _

There was a group of them nervously backing down one of the hallways, Elsa grinned from behind her mask, more killing. Kazuya called her mentally ill and insane while she was trying to smash his head in with a lead pipe…well he put one of his red coat's in with her white's, she hated pink.

Elsa laughed darkly, she'll show Kaz that he was wrong by mercilessly killing all of the people in this base.

Another strong slash of her curved blade. A flash of color jumped in front of her…so she killed it.

That soldier of Bran's, Happy, now laid on the floor shoulders and head now separated from his body. Opps…oh well…damn the remaining rebels got away.

_Picture the two of us alone inside my golden submarine _

_While up above the waves my doomsday squad ignites the atmosphere _

_And all the fools who live their foolish lives may find it quite explosive _

_But it won't mean half as much to me if I don't have you here _

Something slammed into the side of her face, her mask shattered. Elsa slammed into the wall to her side, her hood falling over her face. With a growl Elsa shot back to her feet scythe ready to kill.

Moxxi stood on one end of the hall with a rocket launcher with what looked like a boxing glove attached to it's front, the red dressed woman was staring at her with a raised eyebrow and a smirk "The creepy fear striking killer mercenary is actually a woman…" Moxxi winked at her "…and a cute sexy woman at that."

_You know it isn't easy living here on Skullcrusher Mountain _

_Maybe you could cut me just a little slack _

_Would it kill you to be civil? _

_I've been patient, I've been gracious _

_And this mountain is covered with wolves _

_Hear them howling, my hungry children _

_Maybe you should stay and have another drink and think about me and you_

Elsa's face was neutral, cracked her neck, and kept on whistling the music to the song stuck in her head. This did send a small chill down Moxxi's spin but she hide it well…a small upturn of Elsa's lips showed she noticed.

"You got a name sweetie?" asked Moxxi, her playfulness showing in her voice, Elsa tilted her head to the side slightly like she was trying to see Moxxi from a sideways angle.

_I'm so into you _

_But I'm way too smart for you_

_Even my henchmen think I'm crazy _

_I'm not surprised that you agree _

_If you could find some way to be _

_A little bit less afraid of me _

_You'd see the voices that control me from inside my head _

_Say I shouldn't kill you yet_

_I shouldn't kill you yet _

_I shouldn't kill you yet _

Elsa's whistling abruptly stopped, her left hand tightened on her scythe while the right one rested at her side….to the member's of Death Root when Elsa only uses one hand for her scythe it's never a good sign.

"My name?…it's Death…" with a quick motion Elsa spun, Moxxi quickly shouldered her rocket launcher, Elsa was nowhere in sight now.

"…Now die!" Death Root's symbol of death and rebirth reappeared above Moxxi, scythe straight up in the air, body turned to the side and madness evident in her eyes.

Moxxi took aim "Not before you honey."

----X----

Angel stopped running when the bench came into sight, Destiny was still their, but so was the woman that lead the mercenaries. Now the woman didn't look that threatening, but Angel has been a fighter for years and she could sense the inner power of the woman. Added on Angel could tell with just sight that the violet haired woman has trained hard in something, the fish woman could see the other woman's muscles move under her clothes, and you don't get fit like that with, you could just tell when someone's well trained.

But the woman didn't seem to be threatening Destiny, if at all Destiny seemed to be enjoying the woman's company…or at least the steak Destiny was chewing on.

"Auntie!" Angel's eye twitch, she would have loved to study the scene some more. The mercenary woman turned her head to look at Angel, glasses gleaming in the lowering sun and a small smile in Angel's direction. If it was mocking or not Angel wasn't to sure.

"Hey minnow!" Angel said cheerfully in a forced tone.

The young fish girl pouted "Don't call me that…"

Angel reached the two and patted the girl on the head "I'll think about it minnow…and you must be?"

The woman with the violet hair gave a gentle smile and stood up "To people I don't trust I'm Dark Heart." there was something in this woman's eyes that was very familiar to Angel but she just couldn't place it.

"Ah yes…I heard you wanted to talk to me?" Destiny looked between the two woman confused, she was positive the violet haired woman's name was Shan…but for some reason she just couldn't talk.

"Yes…why don't we take this to a more…secluded area. Is that okay to you?"

"Yes, yes it is." it was taking all of Angel's will not to attack this woman at the moment. Shan motioned for Angel follow, Angel and Destiny following in step behind her.

"Guess what Auntie!?"

"What?"

"My new friend told me about an honoaboble…hofotable…um…"

"Honorable?"

"Yeah, fish man that she considers like a big brother!"

Angel's eyes went from Destiny to Shan's back "…Really…."

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**Another fast update huh. Yeah I know. And I only got two reviews last chapter…must not have been that good.**

**Well I hope you guys like this one.**

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	6. Angel on the Island IV

**Don't own OP. Got it? Good.**

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_Chapter 6: Angel on the Island Finally_

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Shan's smile was sincere enough that Destiny believed it. Angel didn't however and didn't trust the violet haired woman as far as she could throw her.

Scratch that, that actually could be pretty far depending on how the woman looked. She needed another analogy…Angel couldn't trust the woman as far as…ah yes, Destiny could take step, which wasn't very far.

Angel could already tell where Shan, or as Angel knew her, Dark Heart, was taking her. A rather open field with a few tree's on one side and a very steep cliff into dangerous water on the other.

"Hey, Hey where we going?" Destiny asked quite innocently to Shan who walked somewhat a foot in front of them and a few inches to the side.

Shan's smile never wavered when she spoke, which told Angel a lot about the woman "Me and your Aunt are going to talk in private…I'm sure there is a lot we have to go over." Shan paused in her speech to shoot Angel a look "But you sweetheart, if your aunt agrees that is, will be going to play some fun games with a good friend of mine. Would you like that?"

Destiny bounced in joy "Games! Games!

"Destiny…"

"Games Auntie! Games!" laughed the child. Angel just shot Shan a nasty look…the woman knew what she was doing, tricking a three year old away from their protector with the promise of fun…an old trick that Angel really should have seen coming.

But she couldn't tell the girl no now, she didn't want Destiny to witness something she'll have to do, but she also couldn't contact Nine or Moxxi during her current predicament

It didn't take long for them to finally reach their destination, even if it felt longer for both of the woman who moved in near silence other than Destiny's cheering that she final gets to play. Sitting their kicking her feet in a tree was that blonde girl that watched her while she fought against the archer.

Penny waved at the three as the appeared and squealed when she saw Destiny "She-is-so-CUTE!"

"Sunshine!"

"What!?"

Shan looked around "…where's Crow?"

Penny waved the woman off "He's buried fine-"

"Sun-"

"Don't worry I put something over his head, he's got a few hours of air-"

"-Shine-"

"Oh and I made the cutest headstone so people thought it was a grave."

"Sunshine!" Shan finally shouted, a small vein throbbing in her forehead. For some odd reason her boyfriend could never really tick her off, but Penny had the skill of just plain annoyance sometimes, and it just somehow got under her skin every now and then.

This moment was one of them.

"Take little Destiny here and go dig up Crow, got that?"

Penny laughed following that up with a mock salute "Yes boss!" Penny jumped down from her branch and walked towards Destiny "Hey! I'm Sunshine, wanna go make some sand castles with me!?"

"What's a sand castle?"

Penny did a mock gasp, grabbing Destiny's tiny hand "Oh no you never made one? We need to get some dirty for you stat!" and the two girl's ran off, both Shan and Angel had the strong urge to slap their foreheads.

"Okay…" Angel drew out that word for a few seconds "…why the hell did Bran hire you?"

"That should be obvious, your side was winning and his soldiers are pathetic."

"Then what the hell does he want with Destiny!?"

Shan shrugged "Leverage I guess, but don't worry. Bran said if I find the girl before you then bring her in…" Shan looked around "…and I don't see any children around here."

Angel smirked "What you did wasn't that smart of a move."

Shan's face didn't shown any emotion at the moment "If Death Root was still lead by Root then we might have used the girl as a bargaining chip, but we aren't…and at the moment I just couldn't do something like that with a child."

Angel's brow furrowed she didn't really understand what the woman meant, so she adjusted her knuckles back onto her hands and made sure her blade was in an easy assessable place.

All Shan did was pull out two syringes, each fill with a different colored liquid "Know what these are?"

"Shots?"

"For simple minds yes, but what's inside them is two dangerous poisons. The one in my right hand contains a poison the paralyzes your muscles making you unable to move. The one in the left makes you choke fills your lungs with blood." a small smirk started forming on Shan's lips.

"There's no point in telling me girl, I'm not letting you touch me with those."

Shan's smirk grew into a devious smile "Who said I'm using them on you?"

That got Angel, she tried to think of other uses poisons had…well poisons like that "Wait…you said you'll Leave Destiny out of this!?"

"Not the girl either…" Shan snapped the syringes needles off, tilted her head slightly back so she could keep an eye on Angel…and squirted the poison's into her mouth.

"Wha…" this stunned the fish woman, she just poisoned herself!

With a swallow and a soft chuckle, Shan's glasses gleamed in the light, trench knifes in her fist "I'll give you one minute."

----X----

The glove Moxxi shot at Elsa clipped the woman's shoulder sending her spiraling backwards, colliding with the wall. Elsa really didn't enjoy that.

She enjoyed causing pain, not pain being caused to her.

Moxxi on the other hand dropped her glove launcher and pulled out two axe's one was a double bladed axe with on long somewhat curved blade on one side and a shorter blade with a somewhat jagged edge. In her other hand was an axe with only one side but it's blade looked like three large teeth.

Elsa blinked "Where the hell did you pull those out from?" she growled, in a fight the colorless girl really didn't like not knowing certain things about her opponents…for example if they had an ability to pull weapons out of nowhere on a whim.

Moxxi gave a giggle and a wink "Wouldn't you like to know sweetheart."

Elsa really didn't like Moxxi's flirty behavior, it just pissed her off more.

"_X-Blade!"_ shouted Elsa, with a quick blur of her large blade energy that looked like a giant X raced toward Moxxi, the walls and floors broke and shattered from the power of the move.

Moxxi leapt, spinning sideways right into one of the open holes that the attack made. A strong kick to the ground the seductress shoot towards Elsa, her two axe's crossed over her chest ready for action. First was her double blade, it hit Elsa's cloak…but passed right threw, Moxxi swung with her second which managed to rip a good portion of the cloak…enough for Moxxi to see where exactly Elsa's body was so she knew where to aim this time.

Elsa let out an animalistic growl her scythe curving in a arc, Moxxi managed to dodge but the tip of Elsa's blade managed to make a nasty looking cut long her leg.

"You know your even sexy when your angry."

A wave of killing intent washed over Moxxi, Elsa looked like she was twitching a little "Pan…kill."

_Note to self_ thought Moxxi _No more flirting with the crazy woman…seems to piss her off_.

Their was a roar close to Moxxi's right, a panda the size of a medium dog burst out of nowhere, now where has he been hiding…not the right time to wonder that, Moxxi landed a solid kick to Pan's side sending the small bear threw a wall. Don't let her appearance fool you, Moxxi has been Angel's training partner for a few years now.

Moxxi did however forget about Elsa for a brief second and narrowly dodged the woman's scythe from taking her head off, her hat wasn't so lucky however.

"Hey you could have killed me right there."

"That's the entire point."

----X----

Angel didn't really understand, why, why would this woman poison herself. A thought struck her "You're a Devil Fruit user!"

Shan chuckled softly "Not all special abilities come from Devil Fruit's, plus my team relies on me to save them I can't do that when I can't swim."

"So your going to kill yourself before anything happens?" Angel knew she was making a rookie mistake in not taking advantage of this obvious opening and talking to her enemy but it was needed and her soldier's mind just wouldn't let it go. To poison yourself, and to show yourself poisoning yourself to your enemy, it seemed like to much of a trap.

"Those weren't really poisons were they?"

"Nope, the poison's are real…fifteen seconds…" Shan's chilling laugh somewhat haunted Angel "You know Angel, you're the first fish woman I've meet…I wonder if structure is the same as a fish man's…other than the obvious, obviously."

There seemed to be a glint of mischief in Shan's eyes, seemed Endo has had a bigger effect on her than she thought "I would also _love_ to see how being half human and half fish person will effect Destiny's growth and skills as she grows."

"You know she's an hybrid!?"

"I am a doctor first, and I know a fish man quite well. There are certain aspects of Destiny's face and bone structure that just can't be found in the fish people race, no matter what combination of fish types her parents could have been."

Angel was left speechless, but another thing clicked in her head…this merc leader was also a doctor? Something about poison's and a doctor…just seemed to rub on something familiar.

"…Oh yes, and the time limit I gave you is now up." the ground around Shan exploded and the violet hair woman just…disappeared, not even a blur…more like she teleported.

There was a glint of light off to the side, Angel leaned backward as Shan's trench knife passed right by her face, kicking out with her feet Angel managed to hit the other woman but for some reason it felt like hitting a brick wall.

Now normally something like hitting a brick wall and breaking it was child's play for Angel but when said wall was moving at extremely high speeds.

Angel stuck her blade into the ground as she fell backwards. With her momentum the fish woman kicked out with her long legs and spun. This time, even thou she still couldn't see the other woman she landed two strong kicks, a crash some distance away said she managed to send the other woman flying.

Angel straightened, feet lightly touching the ground and blade back where it belonged. Shan was crouched very close to the area's forest line, two deep skid marks that tore up the grass and dirt leading from Angel to where she now crouched. The marks also confirmed another thing in Angel's mind.

_That was one of my power kicks. That confirms just about all my suspicion's now… unnatural strength and speed…actual poisons, I could smell them, she deafeningly wasn't lying._ A small smile spread across Angel's face, if she was correct…and she knew she was, she finally figured out what it was Dark Heart did and was doing.

"You're a Tifihe aren't you? I remember studying up on what your doing way back in the day. "What Angel meant was when she was a teen just getting into the underworld she studied up on all different kinds of skills and abilities she came across the last survivor of the Tifihe family, a family that could 'burn' poisons. Tofca Tifihe was a doctor and a known mass murder who ran with Stein Madro and Dark Death Pirates, a crew that had a fearsome reputation back in the day…

Oddly enough if that crew didn't exist the revolutionary Chess wouldn't exist ether, Angel was a friend of the man…she never did find out how that crew and him where connected thou.

Back to Tofca, the man was know for his poison burning, an ability that depending on what poison he drank gave him some sort of…enhancement or power, nothing drastic like Devil Fruits do…just things that if used right could be devastating.

Their was another, more common burning called Metal Burning…but that's a different skill explanation for another time.

A dangerous gleam quickly flashed in Shan's eyes, she hated her last name…reminded her to much of _him_ and if she had her way…she wouldn't be a 'Tifihe' that much longer "So what if I am?"

"That means your related to Tofca…he was the last know Tifihe, even the last know Poison Burner…sure every now and then a Metal Burner pops up but the Tifihe's were the only Poison ones."

"That fucking bastard is my father…" Shan managed to growl, if you looked closely at Shan enough you could tell her muscles where tensed, and veins bulging a little bit…and it wasn't due to her anger from the mention of her father.

_Seems the woman has daddy issues._ She shouldn't be talking she had her own family problems.

"Now it seems I know your skills weakness…" Angel pointed at the shadows on the ground "My guess is with those two poisons you ingested…you only have three more minutes before this super strength and speed wear off if you keep burning at full strength, which is what you seem to be doing." Hey, Angel study a lot of different skills and styles so she could counter them if the need arose…strength and speed poisons (to Shan's blood at least) only lasted a few minutes on full power.

Shan's anger from the mention and thoughts of her father still showed on her face (…well mostly in her eyes, her face still remained as emotionless as she could muster at the moment).

"I will be burning them at full strength, might as well make these next three minutes worth it huh?" Unknown to Angel, Shan lied, she cut off her speed boost saving it for later.

Shan launched forward, Angel was able to see her this time, the fish woman smiles and ran forward to meet the other woman. Something else made her smile on the inside, if this woman was Tofca's daughter…then…

----X----

Elsa was frustrated…very very frustrated…and no not _that_ way…okay yes that way also, but her Mel was the only one who could satisfy _that _need…well she could satisfy that herself , but….she just plain wanted her teddy.

_Enough of that…mind on killing now_ Elsa shook her head of her sex cravings, and back on decapitating this woman with axe to grind with her…well more like put two axe's _in_ her but still.

Elsa bounced from one leg to the other, Moxxi was walking sideways threw the rubble somewhat crouched, ready to spring to attack or dodge depending on the situation. Most of the walls in the area have been destroyed, thankfully not the ceilings support beams. Elsa stood in the very center of the hallway turned large room, she was able to move a knocked out Pan to a far corner so now nothing could get in her way…or Moxxi use for a way to get Elsa to stop.

Gripping two hands onto her scythe Elsa shot forward at the exact moment Moxxi launched herself, the two meeting half way. Dual axe's now crossed to block the large heavy blade of Elsa's scythe. Some people always forgot just how heavy a giant scythe like Elsa's weighed, let alone how much force it has when power is put behind it.

Moxxi managed to knock the weapon to the side and slice with her left handed axe she got a grazing hit, right above Elsa's hip yet bellow her breast. Elsa didn't hiss in pain, didn't flinch, she just continued her fluid strike

Instead of a strike with her blade, Elsa flipped legs kicking out. A solid kick hit Moxxi square in the breast, Elsa then kicked with her right foot while changing into her hybrid form sending Moxxi in to a wall, the older woman let out a very loud yell of pain.

"Son of a bitch!"

Elsa slowly smirked, did she mentioned she enjoyed causing pain…yeah she enjoyed causing pain. She pressed her hand carefully on her new wound, feeling the warm blood, somehow she never felt Moxxi's blade cutting into her skin…it didn't even hurt.

"So you're a Fruit user? Should have expected that, one out of every two people you fight somehow end up being Fruit users in this world of ours." Moxxi chuckled in mirth, her joints popping as she stood, dust and debris falling to the ground "How old are you girl?"

Elsa didn't look at Moxxi, all she did was study the hand that held her wound, watching the red metallic smelling liquid drip from her fingers, she still answered the question "Just turned eighteen a little while ago…"

Moxxi let out a small chuckle swinging her arms getting the kinks out from her trip into the wall, axe's spinning between her fingers "Shit cutie I am getting old, your two years younger than my son."

Elsa licked one of her fingers cleaning the blood off of it, pressing the button on her scythe, blade disappearing and the pole shrinking down to a foot long. Connecting in to her hip Elsa calm started to walk forward

The gothic woman had a purpose, she wanted to head back to the ship, dress in her baggy shirt and sweatpants and take a nap…and she couldn't do that when she was fighting.

Moxxi was also walking forward with a purpose but somewhat faster than Elsa. She also had a purpose and it was a lot more noble than Elsa's. Moxxi was fighting to protect the rebels and for her friend.

Moxxi's right hand axe started to spin in her fingers at a fast pace and the left one soon followed. Her feet blurred, running forward the madame sprinted forward "_Buzzaxe_!"

The white fur of the navigator's hybrid form was the only warning Elsa gave that she was going to attack, her arms blurred into barley noticeable flashes "_Gatling Bunny Punch_!"

----X----

"_Kichigai Endo!_" Shan was spinning in a fury of limbs and lades, her trench knifes and grieve edges all aiming to cut Angel to pieces. Angel was dodging rather well, a few shallow cuts and wounds covered her body, whenever she got close enough to the blades the force they cut threw the airs caused small wind blades to form.

Now she had to keep her distance for another minute before the violet haired woman's strength returned to normal. Angel also noticed that the mercenary woman's speed was normal…ish…but whenever the fish woman tried a blade attack or punch her speed would increase so she could dodge.

Angel was getting very frustrated, she knew she could win. But she wasn't used to fighting someone how used grieve edges and trench knifes…even after all of her years as a fighter oddly enough this woman was the first person she fought that used these odd foot weapons.

"_Axe Kick!"_ Shan shot up into the air, and crashed down near the spot Angel stood…but the ground didn't shake, and Angel smiled.

"_Jet Slash!_" Angel shot forward at an inhuman speed, blade ready to cut Shan in half. Shan dove forward, jamming her shoulder into Angels gut, it didn't bother the other woman her muscles in that area where hard and defined Shan actually bounced backward.

Angels fist shot down at the ground, the violet haired woman spun to the side. Shan didn't want her precious cargo to be harmed, she didn't care about herself just the area that needed to be protected. Shan kicked upward, Angel knocked her foot away, her grieve edge on her right foot flying off.

"_Muscle Relaxant." _Shan's trench knife dug into Angel's calf, the fish woman grunted in pain. If the wound caused her anymore harm the woman didn't show it.

"Is that all you got girl, I felt worse pain in battle's a lot less important than this." Angel lifted Shan up by her jacket, brought her fist back, and struck…but Shan wasn't their anymore. All that Angle now held in her hand was a black ripped doctors jacket "…how the hell did she get out that quickly,"

Something in the jackets pocket caught her attention, a photo, Angel just couldn't help her curiosity. Pulling the photo out the fish woman's eyes widened slightly, followed by a soft smile _"…_So I was right."

Shan stood up, pulling her shirt down a little bit. She was actually glad that she wouldn't start showing for at least another month. A small smile graced Shan's features, seems the fish woman noticed something.

"So shall we continue?"

"We never stopped."

----X----

Blood trickled down Moxxi's face, her nose was bleeding and her bottom lip was busted. Elsa was hunched over slightly, one of Moxxi's axes lodged into her left shoulder, blood dripping from the large wound.

Both where breathing hard, Moxxi because she was running out of energy and Elsa due to blood lose.

"Why won't you just die!" growled Elsa, her eyes flashing in rage. She just wanted this to be done with, finished, no more.

"Well I'm not going anywhere sweetie."

Elsa roughly pulled the axe out of her shoulder, blood squirted out of the wound. It didn't faze the woman, no amount of blood loss would keep her from this kill. Staying in her hybrid form Elsa launched another attack, scythe coming back into existence aiming for Moxxi's legs.

Moxxi leapt and twisted, kicking the younger girl in her uninjured shoulder. It didn't budge Elsa but it did make her drop the large weapon. Elsa snapped her head forward sinking her long rabbit teeth into Moxxi's shoulder, hitting her collar bone. Bone on bone was not a pleasant feeling.

The two just stay like that for a few minutes, pain blinding both of the fighters. Elsa jerked her head back tearing Moxxi's skin when the dizziness of blood loss was blocked from her mind. Elsa's pure white fur stained dark red with her own and the rebels blood.

Elsa's long ears twitched in annoyance, she's already thought this but this was taking to long…added on she wasn't feeling to good right now. Her ear's twitched again, she heard a mushi ring…where the hell was her mask.

The rebel woman, as she tried to stop the bleeding in her neck, watched as the mercenary stumbled around the room looking for something. She picked up her mask and put it one.

"What is it?"

"_Elsa stop what your doing, get Pan and head back to the ship. I already gave Penny and Kazuya the call."_

"We done?"

"_So to speak…how badly are you injured?"_

Elsa looked her self over, deadly wound in her shoulder, a shallow one on her hip and deeper wound under her breast….maybe a few broken rips "Nothing to bad, I'll live."

She heard Shan give a deep sigh _"Damn it…I know what that means…when you get to the ship try to stabilize yourself I'll be there soon. I have business I need to take care of."_

Elsa just hung-up, picked up her scythe and walked away. Moxxi was confused "Sweetie what are you-"

"Orders. But if I see you again I _will _kill you." Elsa disappeared.

Moxxi, thou confused, started to head towards the med ward….one of the only rooms that survived the encounter with Death…literally. Pulling out her own Mushi Moxxi called for help.

"Scooter meet me in the med ward, momma needs some help."

"_Kay ma! But smoking gods titty cinnamon bun, That chick was a MONSTER! That fight was AWSOME!"_

"Yes it was, glad you stayed out of it."

"_Hey I'ma no punch punch kick kick person, I be a fixeruper."_

Moxxi giggled at her son "That you are hun that you are."

----(ten minutes earlier)----

Shan cracked her neck "Since I've been in control of this fight since the beginning. I think you should continue to _follow me_."

Angel got it, but she didn't like it so she moved, grabbing Shan by the hair and slamming the woman's back into the ground. Shan paid it no mind, spinning and twisting her legs into the air with a corkscrew the motion. Angel let go of the hair, she didn't want to get tangling in the woman's tresses and be trapped.

Shan straightened herself, hair a mess… not like she cared "From what you've said, and from whispers I heard around town you're a powerful fighter…yet from what I've seen you been fighting defensively most of this time."

Lips curled back to show the fish woman's sharp teeth in an amused smile "Your right girl, and I admit you're a very strong fighter and if we where the same age you probably would win in a hands down who's strongest, hand to hand fight. But girl I'm am at least thirty years your senior, I have experience and years more of training than you."

"That still doesn't answer why exactly you've been fighting defensively…"

"Because, I can smell your sent. It would go against my own morals to harm someone who hasn't even had a chance at life yet."

Shan blinked, and slowly looked down, eyes and glasses hidden by her bangs "That's why your holding back…"

"_That's_ why you holding back! That is ……just plan insulting!" Shan finally lost her cool, her eyes filled with rage, emotions boiling "I've been looked down upon, underestimated, and just planed ignored for my entire fucking life! When I joined this group, the marines saw me as no more of a threat than a child!"

"Now when I actually have a strong opponent, where I can prove myself to _myself_ that I'm not just a person on the sidelines, she won't take me seriously…just because….because…." Shan finished her sentence with an angry yell charging forward, burning every ounce of speed enhancing poison in her system.

"_Kiri Jiten Handou!_"

Shan's kick slammed into Angel's stomach, it seemed to be accompanied by tornado like winds the seemed to tear at the bottom of her shirt. Angel was sent flying backwards, but managed to keep herself from falling off of the cliff behind her into the jagged rock infested waters bellow.

Or she thought she did until Shan appeared in front of her "I really don't like to be looked down upon…" Shan gave a quick glance to the waters below "…seems Bran will get his wish……what's yours?"

"Take care of Destiny."

"As you wish…" with a powerful kick Shan sent Angel over the ledge and fell "…it seems we won't be seeing each other for a while."

---X----

Penny hummed to herself as she dug, Destiny giggled beside her at the expense of Kazuya who luck enough only has his legs buried.

"Penny hurry the fu-" Penny flicked Kazuya on the nose "-you did not just Shan flick me…"

"Shush no fucking big words in front of the kid."

"You just said fu-" Penny flicked him again.

"No saying 'fucking' Destiny is like a sponge at this age."

Destiny's giggles grew louder, until she finally decided to throw a clod of dirt at Kazuya's head from where she sat "Fucking!"

Penny glared at the blonde man "See what you taught her!"

Kazuya just growled. Penny was enjoying pissing off Kazuya.

Destiny on the other hand just sat there studying the two adults (from her perspective), how they acted, and how funny they were.

She decided she enjoyed their company. Maybe Auntie would let her play with them some more.

----X----

Shan calm walked threw the halls of the somewhat castle of Bran's. It's been about an hour since she kicked Angel off of the cliff. Which in that time she managed to stabilize Elsa, and run into Penny, Kazuya, and Destiny as they walked onto the ship.

The little fish girl was overjoyed when she walked onto the ship, she even did a little happy dance because sandcastles were fun and Pan was so fluffy and cute. After the girl calm down to a more non wiggly state and the other Death Root members where out of the room they had a long talk…and it seemed now Destiny was now part of Death Root..

Shan wondered just how long it will take for everyone to figure out that the girl was now living with them…she was sure Poly already knew…that old man seemed to pop up at any odd time, he also seemed to know everything…thou she hasn't seen much of the old man much in the past few weeks.

When she gets back she should probably look for him. She really needed to make sure they didn't accidentally leave him on some random island.

It was night, the halls of the building were dimly lit, a few candles flickered from the guest of wind she created when she walked passed. The large doors to Bran's thrown room were open, she guessed the Lord was expecting her, so she didn't bother to knock, she was right. Sitting on his thrown Bran was leaning forward, next to him on a table two metal briefcases sat, she'll have to count that.

"Jobs done."

"Angel is-"

Shan smirked slightly sitting down at the table "I can honestly say you'll never her from the woman again."

"Good…good." A sinister grin spread across his face.

"Well we did our job, I expect this to be the amount we talked about?" she asked clicking open the metal cases, flipping threw each stack of bills then counting each the number of stacks.

Shan took a case in each and with a slight nod to Bran walked out of the room.

Bran laughed, his plans finally coming into fruition. He literally own this entire island, owned it's protectors and it's food sources "Nobody will be able to sneeze without my knowing!"

Yes this was just a small stepping stone to his future empire, he'll own island after island. Kingdom after Kingdom he'll be so rich that no one would be able to question him. With a light tap on his chin, Bran stood "Maybe I should invest in some Devil Fruit use-"

A blade came out of nowhere, slicing threw the bone of Bran's spin and cartilage of his throat. Bran blinked, blood erupted from between his lips just as his head slid from his shoulders and onto the cold, hard floor.

Angel stood over the crumpled body headless body of Bran, bloody blade in one hand and a smile on her lips "Never even saw me…"

She was glad she had a key to a back entrance of Bran's castle…thing. An inside man of hers, Happy his name was, gave her it a few days back now. Angel was final able to get in without the guards taking notice due to the whole 'mercenaries are doing our jobs for us so now we can be lazy'.

Angel was actually glad Dark Heart meet Destiny before herself, if she didn't…who knew what would have happened.

----X----

Kazuya blinded for a second after a was awaken from a small nap…then blinked again. Their was a munchkin fish girl standing over his with a large grin on her face. It oddly reminded him of a grin Siamon used to give before……

Kazuya's eyes narrowed "What are you doing here shorty?"

"Coloring…" Destiny stretched out the word as far as she could, looking as innocent as possible.

Kazuya ignored that for a second "No I meant didn't your Aunt pick you up…" he glanced at the clock in the room….where the hell did he fall asleep anyway, this sure wasn't his room "…about two hours ago?"

"Nope! Auntie says Miss Shan was going to take me to meet a big strong hero, like the story's Auntie always tells me."

Kazuya's eye twitched '_So Shan never even asked us if we were okay with bringing a munchkin aboard_ .'

"Penny!" He called, thankfully she was in hearing distance.

"Yo Kaz." Kazuya's eye twitched again, did Penny know already. Penny was standing a few feet away, her eyes went to Destiny and Penny smiled. The blonde girl then looked at Kazuya…her lips drew to a thin line and her cheeks puffed out like she was trying to hold something in.

"What?"

Penny snickered "N-nothing…" turning to Destiny "…hey cutie! What are you doing here?"

Destiny threw her arms over her head, smiling big "Auntie says I'm staying!"

"That's great!" clapped the blonde "Do you have a room yet?"

"Nuh-uh."

Penny glanced at Kazuya again, cheeks puffing out in amusement "W-why…why don't we go set you up cutie."

The fish girl cheered "Okay!"

"S-s-see you later Kaz!" chocked Penny, the two girls leaving the room…there was a loud burst of laughter when the door closed and Penny was in the hallway. Kazuya growled to himself, their was now another girl on the ship…and she was only around four years old!

"…and what the hell did Penny find so amusing?"

"Why lad it's your face." Kazuya jumped nearly a foot in the air from where he sat. Now standing next to him was a short old man wearing a black suit, a monocle, and a large mustache that cover most of his face.

"Poly what the hell!"

"Hello to you to child."

Kazuya blinked "Where the hell have you been?"

The odd old man shrugged as he to started to walk out of the room himself "Around lad, just didn't want to get in the way. Plus Elsa just plain scares me sometimes."

The archer growled, silently cursing the old man…he really wished he could shrink and hide from the others on this ship "What…did you mean with that comment about my face?"

Poly's mustache bounced in amusement, curling a bit with his smile "Why lad that's an easy answer, the youngling made your face look like a clowns."

Where Kazuya was, he wasn't any longer, and something blew by Poly to get threw the door. The archer quickly found himself on this floors bathroom, and blinked at himself in the mirror.

"I LOOK LIKE FUCKING MARS!"

----X----

" Your sure Destiny will be safe with them?" asked Moxxi, Angel was helping wrap the woman's wounds.

"Positive."

"Sure?"

"Sure."

"Really?"

"Yes Really." Angel growled the last part, Moxxi hissed in pain as the fish woman wrapped one of her wounds a little tighter than comfortable "Moxxi?"

"Yeah?"

"Where the hell is Nine Toes?"

"Uh…" Moxxi shrugged "No clue."

Finishing up the wrap Angel picked up her mushi "Nine!?"

The snails eyes focused and it's mouth looked like it was chewing _"Ye…yeah?"_

"Where are you?"

"_Kitchen."_

Angel knew she was going to regret this "Why?"

"_Making a samich."_

"You mean a sand-witch…"

"_Yeah that."_ Angel hung up, brow twitching in annoyance.

"Moxxi…"

Moxxi quickly stood up and walked out of the room "Go punch Nine got ya."

"Thanks."

Angel slumped down onto a stood in the medical ward. The day's events finally catching up to her, she chuckled.

Bran was dead, more than half of the rebel forces were dead…and Destiny was gone, traveling with mercenaries because Angel thought the girl could actually fit in with them…find a real family, unlike staying with Angel.

Looking to the sky, Angel smiled _Thunder…I fulfilled my promise. _

Even when those people did things for money, Angel already knew they were perfect. Destiny would be well protected, she knew it in her heart of hearts.

If anybody could watch and help Destiny grow it's the family of Angel Tragto's little brother.

----_X__**X**__X_----

Large red dreadlocks hung forward off a tall muscular man's head, which rested in his hands. He was sitting in a well padded leather chair, the looked somewhat bent under the man's size.

He grunted and stood, walking over to a table picking up a stack of papers and six video tapes, he heard some of what these tapes showed but he really needed to see for himself. Something's you really needed to see with your own eyes.

A loud crash from far away, and the buildings alarms sounded. The dreadlocked man sighed…this was becoming a daily occurrence these days. Counting down the seconds, the door to the room he was in clicked open, and in walked an eight year old girl.

The young girl was small for her age…I think…come at just under four feet in height. She was a small thing, with shining blue hair going down to her shoulders, fierce green eyes and a face that you would consider cute if not for the emotionless mask she wore. Dressed what looked like a navy blue suit that resembled an officers uniform, and a dark blue officers hat a few sizes to big, made you think the girl was playing dress-up…but she wasn't.

"Warden…" the dreadlocked man mumbled, not even looking up, it seemed he was reconsidering watching the tapes.

"Vice-Admiral." The girl referred to as the Warden said stiffly, heading over to a large cabinet in the corner of the room.

Vice-Admiral 'Mass Claw' James gave a brief nod glancing at the young girl that just entered the room "Cafeteria riot again?"

"Yep…" Warden unlocked the cabinet, got on her tip toes and started to shuffled threw whatever was in there.

"The Mercenaries again?"

"Correct sir…no offence but if your plan doesn't come to fruition soon I'll kill them…their ruining the orderly reputation of my prison." the girl's voice muffled due to where she was at the moment.

James waved his hand "Yeah, understandable…as Al been able to find a new prisoner psych evaluator?"

"No…understandable, out of our last three one committed suicide, one was killed, and the final one actually tried to killed a prisoner."

James sighed "Yeah…I was just about to go over those tapes. How's the riot going?"

"Everything's under control." Warden huff finally closing the cabinet holding a….rocket launcher.

The marine leader looked at the girl and blinked, a vein bulging on his forehead "Everything's under control!? Your getting a fucking rocket launcher!"

The Warden waved him off, walking out of the room.

James growled…well at least it wasn't Hiro that came into the room.

"Might as well get this over with…" James popped in the first tape.

_**Case 123224- Inmate: The Prophet- Examiner: John Weston**_

(The first person in the room speaks, a marine)_**"Can you please state your name?" **_

(A monotone voice from the second man in the room responds) _"Call me the Prophet."_

"_**State your professions, and the reason you were arrested."**_

"_Mercenary, historian, residential blind badass, your wife's sugar daddy, and self proclaimed pimp. Reason I was arrested? My sheer badassness was so awesome the government wanted to contain it."_

"_**My wife… please note those watching or listening that Prophets voices hasn't changed ass he spoke. Also note the face piercing he may be compensating for something."**_

"_That's what your wife said about you…before I sexed her up that is." _

"_**Why you…I'm not going to give into you jabs."**_

"_Would you prefer I switched to 'Yo Mamma' jokes, I got a few good ones if you want to hear them?"_

(Slams hands onto table)_** "Ending enter view!"**_

_**Case 123224- End Video**_

James could feel his headache growing, and that was just Meku's tape. The blind man had a knack for mocking people and not give an indication that he was joking with someone, no hint of amusement…what…so…ever.

The marine sighed, time for tape number two.

_**Case 132654- Inmate: Mars the Mime- Examiner: John Weston**_

"_**Please state your name."**_

(Mars raises both hands, raises both middle fingers and flicks the camera and the interviewer off)

"_**Why you-!"**_ (jumps at Mars)

_**Case 132654- End Video**_

And there went their first psych evaluator. About to days after they had to arrest the man, James was able to find a second psych to fill the position.

Looking at the remaining four tapes, James didn't know which one should be next…might as well choose randomly.

_**Case 1720098- Inmate: Mercenary Kuma- Examiner: Ken Hotato**_

"_**Please state known name."**_

"_Mhmmm…mhmmm…you know wood can bend with fire without getting burnt?"_

"_**State your name please……"**_

"_What's that annoying little voice…it's not my bunny…not my death…what can it be?"_

"_**Sir**__**! please state your name."**_

(Kuma snarls)_ "Grrrrrrrrr…raaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"_

_**Case 1720098- End Video**_

By the time the other marines got in there, they had to fire around fifty tranquilizer darts into the man before he fell, James really wised Sanders captured Nativa…that would have solved so many problems.

The psych was dead by that time, his entire torso ripped to shreds. There's still and investigation into how the hell Conner got out of his bindings and muzzle.

Next tape.

_**Case 254885- Inmate: El Mariachi- Examiner: Don Don **_

"_**State your name."**_

"_Me ah no speaka yo language."_

"…_**Well it says here your called Mariachi…can you tell me your occupation and why you where arrested?"**_

"_Obe dobe dobe."_

"_**Your just trying to annoy me aren't you?"**_

"_Yes."_

"_**I…I understood that!"**_

"_No 'ou didn't"_

"_**Yeah I did!"**_

"_No 'ou didn't"_

"_**Yes I did!**_

"_No 'ou didn't"_

"_**YES I DID!"**_

_**Case 254885- End Video**_

That video went on for about thirty more minutes until the psych just up and left the room. The Death Root Mercenaries were a pain in his side….he was starting to wish they where actually killed or at least stayed pirates, that would solve oh so many of his troubles these days.

Next video…and the least bothersome

_**Case 322334- Inmate: Iron Shark-Examiner: Don Don**_

"_**State your na-"**_

"_Names Iron Shark, what am I? The second in command of the DRM and yes I am a fucking fish man. Why was I arrested? Because of a traitorous basterd. Is there a reason I'm called Iron Shark? Yes there is a reason, the metal grills I wear and because I can kick your ass 100 ways till Tuesday Why am I so pissed off right now? Simple you Dumbass's placed me in a cell with my insane wooden boss, plus you guys don't serve any of the good fucking coffee, all the stuff you have taste like brown piss."_

"_**Well-"**_

"_We done?"_

"_**Ye-" **_

"_Good."_

_**Case 322334- End Video**_

Captain Siamon's video was probably the most informative one out of the bunch. Note to self restock cafeteria with a good coffee bran to calm an future fish man furry rages.

Tome for the final video…and it was Ordam's, James was not going to enjoy this and already had the aspirin read for the coming headache.

_**Case 666942- Inmate: Root- Examiner: Don Don**_

"_State your name."_

"_**Wait a minutes! I'm the examin-"**_

"_What do you do for a living?"_

"_**I'm a exam-"**_

"_Wrong. Next question right?"_

"_**How could I get that wro-"**_

"_Wrong! Man your really suck at this don't you."_

"_**Now hold on a minutes!"**_

"_Do you see the pink elephants dancing with the hobo's?"_

"_**What the hell are you talking about!?"**_

"_You don't? Tsk, tsk…Do you know the meaning of life?"_

"_**I can't answer that question!"**_

"_It's forty-two just so you know."_

"_**Ahhhhhhh I can't take these fucking interviews anymore!" **_(The examiner pulled out a gun, aimed it at his head…and fired).

"…………_and how does that make you feel?"_

_**Case 666942- End Video**_

"Yep…the headache appeared…" James groaned in frustration popping the pills into his mouth, followed by water. He was still trying to figure out how Ordam managed to reverse the session.

_Boom! _

Seemed like Warden finally used that rocket launcher…at least his troubles couldn't get any worse. He could finally just sit back, relax, and work on getting this migraine taken care of…Warden was taking care of the small riot, Al was looking for another psych examiner, Sanders was making great food in the kitchens, and Hiro….

"James-kun I'm feeling so……JOYFUL!"

_Crash!_

"Damn…it."

**

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**----X----**

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**Longest…chapter…ever…in the…history…of Death Root. So…tired.**

**Well hope you guys liked seeing a brief peek in how the guys are going. How the arc ended, and some of the little twist and revelations revealed in this chapter.**

**Sorry for some of the grammar and spelling errors that will probable be found. I'm tired and I really don't feel like going back and rereading 24 pages of writing…it's very tiring**

**Added on I've been watching every single episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer online…**

**Well and questions ask in the review…**

**So…**

**READ AND REVIEW! **


	7. Viking Arc I

**Insert standard disclaimer here.**

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_Chapter 7: Viking Arc part 1_

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Shan yawned, her arm reached over to her nightstand feeling around for her glasses. Found them…picking up her way of sight, and depositing them onto her forehead, punched her alarm clockand blew her bed head hair out of her eyes.

Glasses on face, check, so far so good her morning was going just fine for now. But an odd feeling in the back of her mind told her to conserve her energy for now, study some medical books, sort threw all their new job request (ones they could actually do and ones that will need to be saved for later).

The doctor tried to role out of bed, but was stopped, something stopped her…she was jammed between two things…which she thought was odd, she didn't feel anything when she moved her arms.

Shan blinked the bleariness out of her eyes turning her head to the left, Elsa was curled up on that side, arm draped across Shan's middle….Shan was actually somewhat grateful she wore sweatpants to bed last night because she could tell Elsa was bottomless.

On Shan's right side, curled into a small just under Shan's arm was Destiny, black hair fallen over her sleeping face and a soft little snore every time she breathed. Shan would have laid there watching the child if the strong urge to go and vomit hadn't struck her at the moment.

The violet hair woman shot out of bed, knocking Elsa to the floor and waking Destiny. Shan was a blur down the hall, bare feet making barley any noise as she ran to the closes bathroom…away from the one woman on this ship, who Shan knew would notice the signs of her condition…she couldn't risk Elsa knowing or anyone knowing yet for that matter…no not yet.

The bathroom was in her sight, Shan skidded on the floor and saw Kazuya was already in the bathroom in his underwear and looked like he was getting ready for a shower…well to bad for him.

Shan grabbed the waist of his boxers, yanked hard and sent the red eyed archer into the wall outside of the bathroom, slammed the door, locked it, dropped to her knees…and decided to have a long drawn out conversation with her white porcelain friend.

"What the hell demon woman!" Kazuya yelled from the other side of the door, holding his now ruined underwear up trying to keep some decency…that yank Shan gave them ruined the pair.

The blonde paused in his yelling when the reaching sound started, concern crossed his face and knocked softly "Hey…Shan you alright?"

There was another gag before Shan answered "Just peachy Kazuya…will you please relocate yourself to another bathroom."

"But-"

"Wake up Penny and have her give you a compass if you get lost Kazuya. Have nice morning…" Shan's voice echoed. Kazuya stomped off, Shan went back to her finally nice private chat with Mr. Bowl.

-X-

Elsa groaned, rubbing her head from her spot on the floor, legs tangled in the bed sheets. For the past few days she's been crashing on a futon in Shan's room since their last job, she wasn't comfortable sleeping in an empty room…it was one of her top fears…being alone.

Last night was different however, Elsa woke up with cold sweats….on the border between screaming and crying and just needed someone to hold onto…Shan was the close warm body. So without asking, in the middle of the night rolled off hers and into the doctors bed.

Hopefully when Shan got back from wherever she ran off to shed wouldn't scold Elsa, she was already emotional as it is.

"Heya!"

Elsa jumped a little from her sport on the ground, looking up at the side of the bed to see the bright eyes belonging to a certain young fish girl peaking over the side of the right at Elsa. A small smile tugged at the woman's lips before it settled back into a neutral expression.

"Hey shorty…." Elsa groaned sitting up.

"I'm not short!" the child exclaimed moving to sit on her knees trying to get on an even height with Elsa…hey Elsa was the fourth tallest Death Root member behind Siamon, Mac, and Meku.

When you get taller than me shorty, then I might stop calling you that. But for now your short…shorty."

Destiny huffed again, before deciding to launch herself at Elsa, who immediately caught the girl, throwing her over her shoulder.

"Hey put me down!" argued the fish girl, squirming to get free.

"Not a chance shorty."

Elsa may be emotionally disturbed, but she knew how to be a mother…and what that instinct told her was dump the girl on Penny, get a work out, shower, and do everything her position on the crew needed her to do before she broke down and cried a little for her missing Mel.

-X-

Shan gargled the final sip of mouth wash, spitting the alcohol free liquid into the sink. Her wet violet hair clung to her face, her towel wrapped around her body trucked just the right way so it wouldn't fall off…not that she cared what the others saw, she wasn't really showing yet….Shan just liked a little decency. Unlike some not to be listed crew members.

" I do have to say that was a new record for me reaching the bathroom." Shan joked to herself walking out of the bathroom, wrapping a towel around her hair , gathering her sleep clothes under one arm and her glasses in her other hand. She couldn't exactly wear them yet, the warmth from her shower fogged them up.

Oddly enough Shan walked out of the bathroom just as Elsa and Destiny passed her, the young fish girl nearly skipping, swinging her arm back and forth as she held hands with Elsa… the younger woman looked somewhat uncomfortable.

Elsa gave Shan a light glare as she passed "You knocked me out of bed."

"You snuck into my bed without permission." Shan shot back playfully, Shan knew one thing, even thou she wasn't a psychiatrist, she knew that Elsa responded to humor somewhat and that included teasing…it took the woman's mind off of her…dark thoughts.

Elsa snorted as she and the little fish girl continued walking "You have cold feet anyway…"

Shan chuckled a bit and went to get dressed.

-X-

Penny grumbled to herself, as she search threw the kitchen, still in her pajama's, which was basically a very long body t-shirt that stopped just under her knees it was white with a giant cartoon panda face on it. Yes, she even wore it to watch duty, she had the last shift, but none of that mattered right now.

No…it seems someone had the munches last night, drank all their milk, ate all their fruits, and just basically cleaned them out of food…they where already low on supplies and Penny still didn't understand why Shan want to leave the last island so fast…all that really happened was Destiny joined them and it's not like they kidnapped her….

They didn't kidnap the girl right?

Penny shook her head, of course they didn't, Death Root didn't kidnap people right? Okay, Okay they did but no one under the age of ten…or with a cold…hey they didn't want to get sick. Now back to her current problem…what to do.

A sandwich sounded good.

"Whacha doing?" a small voice asked from her side. Pan, who was curled up in the corner of the kitchen sleeping like usually whenever he knew Penny was going to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, shoot up from his spot startled hearing a voice that wasn't Penny and had footsteps much lighter than any of the women. He saw Destiny standing next to Penny and calmed down…he still wasn't used to the child's presence.

"Now where did you come from Des? I didn't even hear you come it." asked a somewhat surprised Penny, she was a master of sneakiness when the guys were here and now Destiny was to her…Penny guessed it was karma.

"Miss Death dropped me off saying you were more fun." Penny shook her head, Elsa has been awkward around the young girl since the two meet and Penny didn't understand why.

"Really well…in that case, I'm making the greatest sandwich ever made in the history of the planet!"

Destiny's large eyes grew wider, if that was even possible, in amazement, starting to bounce a little in excitement "Wow! Can I help? Pllllleeeeeeeee eeeeeaaaaaaaaas sssse!"

Penny giggled, she was going to let the young fish girl help anyway "Sure Des…not what's in the fridge?"

The girl skipped to the large cold box, and tried with all her might to open it…didn't budge. Destiny huffed, crossing her arms and was about to have a fit when Penny opened it by flipping a lock on the side….Destiny glared back.

"Sorry, now what do we have?" The girl's stuck their heads in, Penny frowned…not much.

"Pickles, cheese, mustard, relish, strawberries, chocolate pretzels, and hot sauce…good Destiny grab all of that!" Destiny nodded, looking from the refrigerator to the counter before pushing a chair from the table over, grabbing the items, climbing the chair and placed the food.

"Okay I got the cheese whiz, apples, peanut butter, and a banana." the cook placed her items next to Destiny's stuff.

"What's next?"

"We need the secret ingredient."

Destiny's eyes grew wide again "Which is…?"

Penny sighed "Bread…"

Destiny blinked and mimicked Penny's actions.

-X-

"Shan!"

"Miss Shan!"

Shan pulled the brush threw her hair, getting the knots and tangles out. She was dressed and ready for the day, what she wasn't expecting was Penny and Destiny to burst into her room.

"What?"

"We're out of food. Is there a place we can stop to stock up?" Shan shrugged she really didn't know. But she was clean, ready, and annoyed that the itch in the back of her mind telling her something was going to go wrong wouldn't go away.

Shan looked down at the two, before heading out of the room. If they were out of supplies then she'll need to get above deck to the control room. It wouldn't take that long with the life.

"Penny get Destiny cleaned up for today, then get yourself ready. If you see Kazuya tell him to meet me above deck."

Penny nodded in understanding, dragging the young fish girl behind her "I don't wanna take a bath!"

Shan smirked as she walked down the halls, Destiny might just fit into the crew…but Shan wouldn't know that until the guys were back. But at the moment she needed…wait for it…

The doctors hand shot out and grabbed something.

Elsa tripped over her own feet, back colliding with the wooden floor, she let out a groan of annoyance and pain, jerking her arm out of Shan's grip. The zoan glared at the doctor from her position for a good minutes before excepting the other woman's extended hand. A small smile on Shan's face was really starting to get on Elsa's nerves.

"What. The. Hell."

Pulling the other woman up Shan dragged Elsa behind her as she walked "We need a close island to stock up , Penny says we're out of food."

Elsa grunted in annoyance "Let us starve it may speed up everyone's need to find my Mel…and the others."

Shan ignored Elsa's comment, anger slowly boiling underneath. Now wasn't time to get angry…now defiantly wasn't the time if her gut was telling her the truth.

-(Not to far away…out of the regular line of sight)-

A joyous laugh, followed by a hearty clap was heard "Dohohoho! Seems like we finally found a fight after so long!"

A deep, heavily accented voice responded "But are they worthy warriors Captain? Or are they pathetic weaklings."

"Dohohohoho! Won't matter if they are or not. After our last battle we need to restock the crew." The joyful voice paused "Zed? If the medical bay ready we may need it."

A less accent voice answered, with a slightly sarcastic undertone to it "Yeah yeah all the medical equipment is working…more or less."

"Good, good! Zed find Awinter and Thom, bring them up here. Conan-"

The heavy accent spoke "Yes captain."

"Try to at least be civil, we don't need your way's to offend anyone, remember life on the sea is somewhat different than that of your homeland." ordered the jolly voice, which for the moment was hard and serious.

The person that the heavy accent belonged to just grunted.

-X-

Shan sighed deeply stepping foot onto the soft grass of the uninhabited Elsa managed to find. The navigator was very very reluctant to direct them to here, after a few…personal threats delivered by Shan, Elsa quickly found where they needed to go.

The island was covered in tree, a few miles wide and deep, they docked close to a high flat cliff, due to the size of Death Root's ship it was the perfect spot to lay anchor…she needed everyone and there inshore boats needed three people to man.

Taking in a deep break, Shan calmed herself. That feeling in the pit of her stomach plus her resent anger at Elsa were starting to get to her she just couldn't shake the feelings, the breath just helped her bottle them up and pushed them down.

The metallic smell of blood drifted into her nose, Shan knew what it was, Elsa was in her 'Death' attire…and the doctor was positive the navigator hasn't washed that large black cloak. The grim reaper dressed woman moved to head in a random direction, Shan caught her.

"Your not leaving my sight Elsa." order Shan, she hated this. For the past few days the two have been getting along rather nicely…other than the incident where the navigator kissed her, she did promise to be Elsa's support and help in anyway she could…but Shan wasn't going to that level. Shan wasn't a psychiatrist but she suspected Elsa was an extreme case of Monophobia, which was fear of being with out a specific person and also showed signs of schizophrenia at certain times…the second one being just a guess.

After a long deep discussion with Elsa and Mac after she figured out there secret, they told Shan more detailed version of the history, a longer going past the events that forced them to leave there island. Shan was surprised that the duo could even separate from each other, during brief times over their course

But those moments were stories for another time.

Elsa didn't resist Shan holding her back, the woman actually just plain stopped moving before swiftly turning around and stood behind Shan. Next off the ship was Penny and Kazuya, oddly no Destiny or Pan.

Shan raised an eyebrow at the teen blonde girl, who just grinned and twirled a few hair strands around her finger answering Shan's silent question "Poly is reading Des a story, and Pan is completely asleep…he looked to cute to wake up."

"Was this before or after you ordered him to bit me?" growled Kazuya, rubbing a spot on his arm hidden under his coat. The cook didn't respond her grin stretching into a full-blown smile, cheeks a little red.

"So…Penny…what will we need to find?"

Penny reached into one of her vest pockets pulling out a long list of things, Shan cut her off "All the things actually possible to find on an uninhabited island…."

"Oh…well in that case." ripping off the top….foot…of the list, Penny handed it to the doctor " There ya go Shan."

Scanning over the still long list of items Shan nodded, it was possible but it'll take awhile "Okay now-"

There was an explosion, Penny and Kazuya jumped, Elsa…was standing stock still, and Shan sighed. A giant net was cast over their ship and Shan was counting down the seconds before Penny says something stupid…

_4...3...2...1..._

"Wow, that's one big net." Shan palmed her face, at least a net wasn't dangerous to the ship…sure Destiny, Mr. Poly, and Pan now were all trapped on it now….but at least they weren't hurt.

Kazuya blinked "What the hell?"

Elsa thou was the first person to noticed where the net came from, she pointed to a somewhat smaller ship docking not to far away. It was painted an odd combo of red, green and yellow with the figure head in the shape of an oddly dragon. It's flag was white, the top corner and most of the canvas covered in a rising run, in the middle of the sun was an ancient drawing of a bird.

Standing at the front of the ship was a large form stood in the shadow of the cliff, it's arms crossed over its chest, it laughed "DOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! There be not many of ye are there?"

Shan shook her head, her violet wavy hair moving with her head "Not at the moment…" that feeling in her stomach just got worse…and the headache that signaled that something annoying was going to happen soon started to pound.

The large form stepped out of the shadows…definitely a man…and very…giant man. The laughing man stood just under twelve feet tall, with a big bushy blonde handle bar moustache and a wide freighting muscular build. He wore heavy battle armor, spiked shoulder and hip guards, a big chest plate and arm guards. From the skins of animals he wore tight leather shorts, loin cloth, fur cloak and fur boots. On his head he wore a horned Viking helmet that had a nose guard.

To say the man wasn't at least somewhat intimidating was an understatement, but Shan and Death Root actually saw and fought worse.

The large man laughed another hardy laugh, flexing a little bit "I Eric Von Elric captain of the Phoenix Born Vikings, challenge you to a Davy Back Fight! Dohohohohohoho!"

Rubbing her temples Shan said the only think that came to mind "Well…crap."

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**-X-**

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**And we start the out the new arc with a bang! If you've read DS Death Blade (if you haven't it's future AU with Death Root playing a large part in it…staring Destiny)….well as I was saying if you read that you'll recognize Eric von Elric (thou he is younger here) and have probably already realized how this arc is going to somewhat end. **

**Also no one needs to point out the somewhat Yuri undertones between Shan and Elsa…ShaEls if you will. That's basically somewhat fan-service that actually as a point, it shows how unstable Elsa's mind actually is and her trying to find someone she can replace Mac with while he's gone so her fears don't get her…so basically more into Elsa character, and Shan don't bend that way (*Somewhat Spoiler* Thou a future kid of hers will.) **

**Hope you guys enjoyed this. College life is read taking all of my energy so I don't know when chapter 8 will be out, but do look for it…it may be two/three weeks thou. I am going to be working on the next chapter of my pokémon fic…haven't updated that in a while.**

**Until next time. SO people READ & REVIEW!**


	8. Viking Arc II

**Yes I do own OP, why do you think it takes so long to update this?**

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_Chapter 8: Viking Arc part 2_

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The smell of blood was all that filled his nose, a familiar and soothing smell to him. The hard bottoms to his leather shoes clicked on the wooden floor boards. The ship he was one felt like it was soaked it the life liquid. A scream of pleasure echoed threw out, which said that the only female on this particular crew was either getting her brains fucked out or pleasuring herself.

A small frown graced his features, so uncivilized …so unclean…savages. He didn't understand how the ships captain could go about things without class, style, or faïence. It made him want to pull up his white trench coat up a little bit just to make sure no blood stains or anything else…unsavory got onto it.

"I do not like this place cousin…why couldn't one of your siblings or another member of the squad join you on this. " a female voice said from his side, she didn't sound nervous or scared…just…uneasy.

The woman next to him was of average height, which meant she came up to just around his shoulder. She had fine dark hair and brown, an athletic body that he knew was stronger than it looked. Thin shoes covered her feet, and wore a standard assassins outfit for their clan, a black leather vest and pants.

"Because Melanie you needed to get out more. Can't have the leader of my best squad be a shut in, just because she doesn't know the current fate of her scum of a husband."

The woman, Melanie, frowned and in a low vice spoke "Cousin…do not insult my husband."

He frowned, he didn't really understand these…emotions the woman was emanating…nor did he really care. Brushing a strand of his white hair off of his glasses, he fingered his sword stopping in front of a door.

"Where here."

Knocking once, he enter once and greeting with the sight out a man standing at a table covered in different papers and maps. He didn't look that old, but they both knew he was in his late fifties or early sixties. The man had a very angular face framed by thin string like black hair, stubble decorated his chin showing maybe weeks of uncaring. The mans trademark old ratty green coat seemed to absorb what light was in the room, a twisted grin decorated his lips.

A knife danced between his fingers in one hand, brushing the papers off of his table "Well, well Jeremiah. Shall we get down to business?"

The white haired man frowned, Melanie snorted in frustration nest to him " Even thou I find this ship utterly disgusting, it'll be best if we do Madro."

-X-

After that annoying headache started to dull, Shan's eye twitched behind her glasses as she looked up at the large giant of a man "Wait…what?"

The large Viking gave another hearty laugh "A Davy back fight lassie. Where one crew challenges another, and the losers hand over a member for each challenge lost."

Elsa wasn't saying anything, but Shan could feel the quiet rage building up in the woman…thankfully neither of them started talking, no that honor goes to Penny.

"So why the hell would we even fucking agree to battle you Dumbass." Shan's brow twitched, the urge to flick the young blonde teen in the head was growing…the girl was pushing it, that was no way for a growing girl to speak.

"Why we have your ship trapped by our net."

Kazuya's turn "And what's stopping use from just cutting are way threw the net and going on our marry way? Added on we're not even pirates, which I'm positive Davy Back Fights rules only applies to."

Eric blinked "Nothing….is stopping you…" he then squinted his eye at them "Your not pirates?" his eyes then traveled from the group of four on the ground to their ships main mast where there many flags that flew the mercenary symbol, the bloody seagull.

"Ah, mercenaries." the large man laughed again, Shan was starting to get annoyed "Well how about we just pay you to work for us."

Shan waved a hand in a slight waved as she walked back to the ship, who cared that they need supplies, there had to be a better place than here at the moment away from an annoying Viking "Already on a job so if you know the location of the prison known as the Asylum then please leave us alone."

"Asylum?" Von Elric grinned "Why I know exactly where it."

The four stiffened, even thou Shan's back was turned she felt the temperature drop, and the sheer bloodlust radiate off of Elsa.

A slow hiss escaped the woman dressed as the Grim Reaper "What…?"

-X-

Tears brimmed in Destiny's eyes…and Pan had no clue what the hell to do. The panda couldn't find that old man and they where trapped on the ship unable to go outside.

"I-I don't like this…" a few drops of water fell from the girls eyes, Pan shook. Really what was he to do…he'll hurt the girl it he touch her due to his claws.

Ah…yes…no…wait…no he didn't…where the hell was that old man!

"Waaaahhhh!" tears poured down her cheeks and onto the floor.

Pan cursed in his head, Damn it!

"Maybe I can help." Poly said, Pan jumped off the ground scared out of his fur. Turning to growl at the old man Pan bared his teeth.

Now he shows up.

Destiny was still crying thou.

Cracking open his large book, which again just seemed to appear on the table in the room they where in.

"Now little one how about I read you a story?"

Destiny sniffed again, but shook her head 'okay' she would like to hear one of the man's story's. He's told her some good ones over the past few days, one a day.

"Good, good…" flipping open the book, Poly found a rather good one…and one that also signified courage…at least somewhat.

"_This is the story of David and Goliath. We begin our story with two armies…"_

-X-

"Death, stand down!" Shan shouted before anything was even started, she could tell the slight twitches in Elsa's posture was the start of an attack and she didn't want to risk the possible lead.

Staring at Eric, Shan moved forward "Really…and I guess if we have this 'fight' you mentioned and win you'll tell us."

Eric frowned slightly then smiled again "I was just going to suggest you join us and we'll take you there but my original idea sounds much better."

Jumping down from his ship the ground shook and the large…human….giant…person let out another of his, to Shan, slowly getting on her nerves laugh Eric motioned for people to leave his ship. Shan, Penny, and Kazuya didn't know what to expect…since it seemed they where going to have to fight these people.

The first off of the ship was another large man, but not in height just sheer intimidating muscle size. He had black hair in a square main cut, with blue eyes that seemed to cut into you. His skin was a dark tan from what seemed to be long exposure to the sun and wore nothing but animal skin pants and fur boots. The mans face was set in an angry scowl for some reason, seemed he didn't agree with the way his captain or leader was handling things.

"This be my second Conan!" boasted Eric.

The second one down was an average sized man, maybe around six feet tall with peppered hair and gray eyes. He wore a blue long-sleeved dress shirt, black pants and over that a white apron with dark blood stains covering it, Masking most of his face was a surgical doctors mask, for what reasons he had that was unknown.

"This is Dr. Zed."

The older man nodded at the woman and one man standing opposite of them. He seemed to have a somewhat lazy demeanor. Kazuya's low somewhat silent whistle reach her ears, Shan looked at him yet the man's eyes couldn't seemed to leave the opposite ship.

"Now that's a woman…" Kazuya mumbled, a small grin forming on his face.

Next was a was very…fit woman around six three in height, mostly leg. It seem Kazuya found this woman beautiful, Shan didn't swing that way. She was athletic, well defined muscles, dark chocolate like skin, long straight brown hair, and dark piercing eyes that seemed to cut into you…and she wasn't even glaring. She was clad it a blue died fur bikini top, and a long straight dress with a slit up with sides for fast movement.

"Awinter and finally Thom."

Shan looked for Eric's supposedly final member and he was…no where to be found. Penny raised her hand pointing at the Viking "You lied there isn't a final person!"

Eric laughed, Shan groaned in frustration "Why young on he's already here!"

Mist poured out of the ship and formed out of the air, taking shape into what resembled a man…and man made of some sort of mist but that was the only detail Shan could make out…it seemed he didn't have any true features.

"Now this here be my crew young lady!"

-X-

"…_the armies stood face to face, unmoving, due to one army's fear of Goliath, a giant fighting on the other side who challenged those who were willing to come and fight him so he could crush them with his weapon…"_

-X-

Shan's eyes scanned over there now gathered enemies, gladly there was only five of them. She knew what a Davy Back Fight was, and it was usually give by large crews to smaller crew to gain more members…seeing only five meant it will be easier with these…games that were suppose to be playing.

"So do we start these….games…now." asked Shan, her cold voice holding a hint of questioning to it, Eric responded with a laugh…it was now annoying Shan more than when Penny found it funny to steal all of her shirts.

"We don't do those pathetic games weaklings who can't fight use. We…" looking around "Awinter!"

The dark beauty, bowed "Yes captain…" and walked to the side of their large ship to…punch the thing, the four Death Root's sweat dropped. Or they did until a large panel opened up on the side, a large giant black screen.

Shan raised an eyebrow "O-kay?"

"Here's what we do. The crews type in their names, after a random selection from each side fights are chosen. After all of those are finished the leaders fight, whoever has the most wins has the entire opposing crew join them."

The Death Root's all looked at each other before Von Elric spoke again "Which one of you be the leader?"

"That would be me." Shan stepped further headed of her team, close to Elsa so if the woman decided to do anything…rash.

Eric waved has large hands "I can't fight a woman!"

"What!" Penny shouted, Shan tensed, and Elsa's anger level raised…it seemed they were dealing with a-

"I'm not a sexist or anything girly, it just goes against my morals. Awinter or one of the others usually fight the strong women, I just can't bring my self to harm a woman." Eric may have somewhat saved his own skin there.

"The captain is an honorable man, and holds strong in many of his beliefs." Awinter stated, her voice level and calm "But the captain may be making a mistake, there are only four of them. Three are women while the blonde man looks weak."

"Hey!"

Zed looked at Awinter then to Elsa "The grim reaper one is a woman? How do you know?"

The Viking woman pointed at Elsa "I can tell the basic features of anyone. Her stance, shoulders, eyes, and mouth that you can see barley threw the cracks of the mask give it away mostly…" the woman smirked "…added on I heard her voice when she spoke that one time."

Zed shrugged his shoulders, the mist the was suppose to be this 'Thom' seemed to be laughing at him…the words 'You just got owned' where spelled out in the air. Eric however was thinking, he scratched his large mustache then snapped him fingers.

"I Got it." Walking closer to Shan, which was kind of weird when you looked at it since Shan was considered a petite thin woman while Von Elric was large in both ways "I'll give you a day to find a fifth male fighter. If not, the feminine blonde man fights twice."

"I'M NOT FEMININE!"

Penny patted Kazuya's back "There there Kaz, maybe I can give you a hair cut latter."

"Oh hell no…" the archer growled under his breath.

The two leaders ignored the two, Shan shook her head in agreement "Yes…I'll abide my your terms." she extended her hand, which was soon covered by his much larger one.

"We have a deal then." Eric laughed "Let the games start…tomorrow!"

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**-X-**

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**Uh…holy crap, this chapter gave me so many problems that I can not even begin with (added on I only got six pages in a month, adding work, traveling, and college). But now its finally underway and everything's fine…ACTION STARTS NEXT CHAPTER! Will Shan find a fifth person? Will Eric and co win? Will Kazuya and Penny get more screen time next chapter? Only the future will tell!**

**BTW I'm in the process of writing two one shots, one of Endo and Shan's daughter and the other one Siamon. Both of those are hire in priority to me, than my next chapter, so I won't start write/update with the next chapter after I've written and posted both One Shots. DS after you read this I would like to talk more about the Si one shot email me when you can so we can hammer out some more details.**

**Other than that peace out, and keep your eyes peeled for the OS' and the next chapter my fans. If you need to reach my PM or email you all know how to do that right? Any questions? Same process. (and if anyone wants find me on face book)**


	9. Viking Arc III

**Don't own One Piece if I did there would be a serious romance between Luffy and Nami (strong supporter of the LuNa pairing).**

**Been out of commission for a while haven't I? Fighting threw a slump of bad luck, a busy schedule, and writers block is really hard to do. I wanted to write bit I just….couldn't for some reason. **

**Well…here we go. The chapter probably won't be up to snuff.**

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_Viking Arc part 3_

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The slow tap of her pencil didn't help Shan think as much as it was a way to kill time. Her lab was dark and everyone else was asleep, she didn't know why she decided to entertain these Vikings. Maybe she was channeling Endo of all things but something just seemed to be calling to her, whispering to just fight.

But now she was in a dilemma, they needed a fifth fighter. Destiny was way to young and hasn't even started to learn to fight, Pan was a no, and Poly…just no, that old man would be crushed.

Shan sighed she just wanted to find the boys…but it looks like the universe had different plans at the moment.

"You seem lonely Ms. Shan." the quite voice of Destiny spoke from behind, Shan was startled but didn't show it, just grinned at the little girl that seemed to be hugging the doorframe of her lab.

" Well…I am."

"Why?"

"I lost the closest person to me…plus…we're kind of in a jam for tomorrow."

Destiny shuffled her feet, and quickly hurried to place something on Shan's desk before hurrying out of the room "I found that in a room, when Auntie was lonely she talked into one."

Shan paused to look at what Destiny left, it was a Mushi, a small one that looked like one of the original Death Root mushi's…before Endo added his 'creative' touch. It also seemed to be set on a certain frequency.

A little fish girl may have just helped her.

Picking up one end Shan spoke "Hello? Anyone there?" and someone answered.

-X-

It was midnight at the Asylum, most of the prisoners slept around this time…minus a few nocturnal or crazy ones. The halls basically empty as two near identical, regular marines roamed. The only difference between the two were their hair styles, one shaggy, the other long and in a ponytail.

"I really loathe having the same face as you." the pony-tailed one hissed threw clenched teeth, his partner grinned back.

"Eh so it _bugs_ you doesn't it, makes you _sick_, gets ya all _burned_ up."

"Shut the hell up bonehead, I don't want to hear from you right now. Let's just find that man, and give him the information leader want him to know." the shaggy haired marine didn't respond, but that grin was still plastered on his face.

"Now which cell was he suppose to be in?"

"The one with no life energy radiating out of it. So it shouldn't be that hard to…."the pony tailed one stopped short with a raised eyebrow.

"Here it is…pick the lock you _bone_ified idiot." the shaggy haired one grunted his response, a slim white pick seemingly appearing in his hand. A quick click that no other person, prisoner or guard, noticed the two marines walked inside, to see a man sitting cross-legged on the ground with his arms and legs locked to the wall.

"Well if it isn't the bosses boy…" the shaggy haired one laughed, then squinted "…is he asleep."

The contained man twitched, the black piercing that covered his body seemed to shiver as he opened a pale gray eye "I was expecting someone but you two…never would have thought….your energy feels the same yet your bodies are different."

The pony-tailed one frowned while the other laughed "Yeah, that demon bitch said that due to are abilities we can change our appearances so bibity bobity we-are-here."

The man on the wall smirk ever so slightly "Well what has did my father feel like I needed to know. Plague? Kiego?"

-X-

On an island not to far away from where Shan and her team where about to take on a group of Vikings, was a large meadow. Grass three feet high, no trees in sigh, the faint outline of a town in the distance…lightning struck.

And again.

And again.

The bolts of plasma kept striking the earth in rapid succession until it looked like a circle of light that connected the sky to the planet. Smoke raised from the burning land as everything in the area heated up to an unbearable level before suddenly…stopping.

Four humanoid figures stood in the clearing, three female one male, the smoke obscuring most of their features. The tallest of the women smacked one of the shorter females on the back of the head.

"What have I told you about pressing buttons in ancient ruins?" the tallest woman growled.

"Nothing…you've told me not to press buttons on our ship, pirate ships, marine bases, anything that looks remotely high tech. Nothing about buttons or dials in ancient ruins." the female that was smacked grinned, which seemed to aggravate the tall one. The final female shrugged a monotone voice cutting threw the smoke.

"She got you there."

"And why weren't you watching your girlfriend?"

"…"

The only male chuckled "Oh she was watching her, Koi was just 'admiring' Shen's new pants."

One girl nearly talked the other shorter one squealing "Ah Koi your blushing that's so cute!"

The tallest, still unnamed woman groaned resting her face in her palm "Okay…Shen…what do you remember touching before…" motioning to the scenery around the four "This happened."

The loudest, and seemly the more cheerful girl, Shen, adopted a thinking position "Well…I set one dial to 19Y, another to 2H, and the final one to 3W. The I pressed the big red button."

The man sighed "See that's why you never touch red buttons."

"Why are you even here Duncan? Your not part of our crew." the monotone girl who's been labeled as Koi stated as she started to walk from the scene towards the town in the distance.

"Ouch Koi…that hurt…right here…"

"…"

"Okay fine it was either go with my sister's doing….something or hang out with Shen…" the man groaned, shoulders slumping, the other two woman laughed.

"Well." the tallest stated following Koi "Let's see where the hell we are then find out how we got here."

"Oh that's easy my fishy friend! We're in Las Vegas land of the leprechauns who owe me five bucks…Hey Koi wait up I need your help in getting my money back!" the woman Shen yelled racing ahead.

The lone man, Duncan, gave a heavy sigh and sluggishly trailed behind the women "I could have had a somewhat nice day with my sisters…but no I had to go into mysterious ruins with my two lesbian friends and their boss."

-X-

Shan didn't get much sleep the night before, and was rudely awaking by a hungry Destiny this morning. The violet didn't mind, she cared for the small child but still…she was basically risking their lives in this…fight.

Thankfully she managed to find a replacement fighter who should be arriving soon. Or he better arrive soon those Vikings weren't looking to pleased. Well Eric was all smiles, and that…mist man didn't have an expression.

Conan growled in anger "We should just start this blasted thing. We need more wenches on the ship." Awinter shot her crewmate a glare but didn't respond otherwise.

"Now, now my friends no need to get snippy we have all day." Von Elric laughed heartedly.

Now Elsa on the other hand was getting frustrated, Shan could sense it in waves. Penny seemed to be getting uncomfortable and Kazuya was sitting cross-legged on the ground sharpening his white metal sword. Something was off about the male, his eyebrows knitted in frustration, Shan didn't know what was wrong with the man but hopefully it didn't interfere with his fight.

"When with this guy show…" Elsa whispered, Shan ignored. The merc leader however snatched a pair of scissor's out of Penny's hands as the cook marched towards Kazuya.

"No."

"Aw come on D.H he needs to start looking like a man!" Penny pouted bouncing a little, she wasn't trying to reach the scissors, hell Penny was almost Shan's height now and she could fly…sort of, Penny just felt like bouncing. Kazuya it seemed heard what Penny said but didn't do anything about it, his face just grew more frustrated.

That's probably not a good sign.

Their final fighter better get her soon or-

"Watch out bellow!"

Dust and dirt erupted from the ground as something crashed right in the middle of the two groups. The Vikings got into fighting stances while Shan motioned for her three to stand down.

A fit of coughing started in the middle of the dust and a figure walked out, spitting out pink feathers in disgust "That's the last time I absorb someone with a flamingo fruit."

"Hey isn't that the gay guy who's ass Prophet kick way back in Pompeii?" the oh so subtleness of Penny said.

"I'm not gay!"

The man was in fact Gilmore Getalot, the marine labeled 'Mr. Touch and Go' and ex-first-mate of the deceased Exuro and his old crew the Volcano Dragon Pirates. But something was drastically different about that man, the entire left side of his body was badly burned…or at least just horrific burn scars now. His hair on his right side was tall and fashioned to look like giant spikes, each spike a different color, while his left side was completely shaven. His eyes shone with joy, they seemed to change colors each second.

He wore a suit, pink in color with neon green shoes and a bright yellow ascot . He gave Shan a deep bow " As you can see I am not late. Just as I said Miss Dark Heart."

Shan pushed her glasses up her nose before nodding "Good. Prophet seems to trust you somewhat at least, I will as well." turning to Eric she gave the giant of a human a level stare before a small smirk formed upon her lips.

"Well Mr. Von Elric shall we begin or has this _long_ break gotten to you."

**

* * *

**

**-X-**

**

* * *

**

**Yeah, short, but I'm getting back into things. A few of my fans my recognize a few things in this chapter. A few also may have noticed three characters that haven't been used since the original Death Root final make there returns. I also do have a good reason for bringing Gilmore back, when he was originally introduced he was a bad guy…and if you look closely enough at his fight in that story…you could see I was planning on his return for awhile.**

**Well this chapter is short but it needed to be done. I don't think I had it in me to start writing fights when I started on this chapter since I'm just dusting myself off after the Hiatus I had. **

**Just so you all know why I've been gone it's three things. The most important was three days after I posted that one-shot about Endo and Shan's daughter I got into a very serious car crash and thankfully only broke one of my hands. After that healed College started and I got a job so that only left two days a week of me being free (Monday and Friday).**

**Next Chapter: Viking Arc part 4**

**And the Board Says!…Fight 1 Death vs. !**


	10. Viking Arc IV

**I do own One Piece, just bought it with my collection of pennies isn't that great. Chapters short, but enjoyable. The fights are going to be short…just because this arc's fights have been causing me serious problems in writing.**

* * *

_Chapter 10: Viking Arc part 4- What's up Death?_

* * *

_Beep_

_Beep_

_Beep_

_Beep_

Once Shan announced that her side was ready, and Gilmore joined their little groups side, the black screen that seemed to be fused with the side of the Vikings boat came to life. Letters seemed to dance along both sides with a large VS in the middle, an annoying beep ticked every second.

It was aggravating…and behind her mask Elsa was twitching horribly. She was annoyed and angry, this stalling in looking for her Mel was making Elsa murderous. Simply put Elsa just wanted to spill blood and leave, nothing more nothing less.

She was Death now, skull mask and black cloak, piecing eyes , and a growl that sent shivers up many spines. Death wanted to be gone _**she**_ wanted her monster back and killing by his side again and he hers. Elsa the navigator has been locked away for a couple of weeks now since that…incident. 'Death' has been in control and as it's been said she just wanted to kill and get _**her**_ creature back, but she also wanted the other pleasures….the ones a good fuck would probably cure.

'_No! No! No! I will not be 'fucking' anyone other than MY Mel! '_

'_**There won't be any real penetration my little Yin, I just want a taste of that cold hearted purple haired bitch.' **_

'_WHAT-THE-HELL! I'm not a fucking lesbian, I'm not even attracted to Shan in the first place! I admit she's a very attractive woman, but mamma don't bend that way Yang!'_

'_**We'll I do, or at least will until our creature is back.'**_

'_His name is Melcom A. Conners! You bitch!'_

'_**Oh I know we are sweetheart…**_ Death's eyes traveled over to Shan _**…I wonder if the carpet matches the drapes'**_

'_I swear when I get a chance I'm kicking your ASS!'_

'_**Like to see you try my sweet but at this moment evil dominates good, Death beats Nativa.'**_

Odd the beeping stopped, Shan and Penny where both looking at her expectantly. Actually everyone else was also….did her mask fall off?…Nope still there. The green eyed woman looked around, eye's finally catching the board. Oh…that was it.

'**Death' vs. Doctor Zed**

-X-

The hall's were dirty, so very dirty, and perfect for someone like him to clean. Why? It was simple, he was a low ranking marine and that's what they did. Sure he and the others stood around, firing randomly and yelling incoherent things at the big named pirates before getting launched, slashed, and somewhat crushed by a massive attack that sent them flying.

Thankfully all of the lower…un….promising marines were sorted into classes to help them. He was the top of those classes, something he was extremely proud of, if only his father could see him now…probably still be pissed that he joined the WG…sadly he was a…minion for some 'Works' group or something and was crushed under debris from a building.

But as he swept the marine heard someone calling to him, that can't be right he was just an average marine. White hat that said 'Marines' on it? Check, equally white and blue sleeveless shirt? Check, either black or blue pants with black shoes? Check and check. He was average height, short brown hair, brown eyes, and clean shaven….basically he looked like fifty percent of other marines.

"Psst? Hey…you with that hat!" called the voice, the marine pointed to himself.

"Yeah you, totally unassuming marine sweeping the hall over there." the marine followed the voice, stopping in front of one of the cells that seemed to be containing a one eyed man hanging from the ceiling.

"Yes?" he asked.

The one eye man did this…odd…grin, that seemed to twist the scars on his face "What's your name?"

The marine blinked, no one in the history of his career has ever asked that, so he blinked again just to make sure what he heard was right "Um…Bob."

"Well Bob…your name's extremely boring."

"I'll have you know that my mother loves my name, she always said it was way better than my grandfathers, his was A and he was a soldier."

"Still boring…" the one eyed man grinned "…So Bob what exactly do you do? Because I could have sworn I've seen you before."

The marine, now labeled Bob, narrowed his eyes suspiciously "Why should I tell you?"

"Cause I'm just hanging around…bored…AND A CERTAIN FISHMAN WON'T TALK TO ME!" the one eyed man yelled to someone far down the very long hallway.

"SHUT UP ROOT I'M STILL PISSED ABOUT THAT DATING SURICE YOU TRIED TO MAKE ME APART OF!"

The one eyed man just shrugged "See he's pissed, I'm bored, and you seem unnaturally uninteresting so naturally I just had to talk to you."

Bob nodded his head "That made complete sense."

"Well?"

"Ah yes….well I don't do much other than the things people rarely even think about but I have made a list of things every marine needs to know to have a successful career."

"Well…fine, I'll bite…figuratively…for now…my amusement has been at an all time low, Shark won't entertain me and my girlfriend isn't hear….soooooooo….carry-on."

"Well-" Bob pulled out a small sheet of paper from his pocket "-the first tip is get used to wearing the same thing everyday, only the high ranking marines can wear what they want."

"Second tip, learn to play dead. Those dastardly villains…are probably fifty times stronger than you. Good thing is they rarely pay attention to us grunts and only aim for the leaders."

"Tip number three, never use or carry a weapon that you don't expect to get hit with. Most people these days are highly skilled martial artist for no apparent reason so that weapon will be most likely used against you."

"Tip four, run like hell once your commanding officers…who oddly enough will probably equal the same number of villains….wait till their distracted by fighting and run…run fast."

"Tip five, pick your commanding officer well, some get easily pissed, others could poison you with their sheer presence. Preferably one that isn't insane. Like the Warden, she's calm, calculating, and as cute as a button to boot." stated Bob, folding the piece of paper and placing it into his pocket, he didn't seem to noticed the one eyed man grin.

"Someone has a loli fetish/crush on the Warden….see that slash there? That means it's both in writing terms."

Bob's face turned red, as he started to get back to his sweeping "I don't know what your talking about….goodbye criminal!"

The one eyed man just kept on smiling "See ya later unassuming marine Bob! I'll defiantly remember you!"

For some reason this…henchmen of a marine…felt a shiver go up his spine…he really did not like the sound of that.

-X-

A wicked grin stretched across Death's face, seemed she was fighting and it was that odd doctor who wore a mask…who wore a mask these days really…oh right… her….never mind that then. Nearly gliding to a good position to stand before the fight began she watched Zed calmly step up, snapping surgical gloves onto his hands.

"Clap!" Zed yelled at…something on the ship. The Death Root's all turned their heads as they heard gears turning and popping, a three foot tall…thing, seemed to climb onto the gangplank. It was square, made of metal, and seemed to move by a single wheel under its square body. It's body was painted red, and in the center of it's….face….was a single glass and metallic eye, which oddly seemed to fit with it's thin pipe like metal arms. This metallic…thing seemed to be dragging two similar weapons that Elsa figured belonged to Zed down with him.

It was all odd yes, but it was even odder when Death noticed it was talking to its self "Iiiiiiii don't like this…" it seemed to glance around as it…rolled to Zed, eye falling on the black cloaked woman "…making me nervous…"

It seemed to notice the giant scythe she held "…Okay deep breath…" the robot seemed to gasp for breath "_I can't breeeeathe! _This is just a recording of someone breathing! It's not real! It's just making me more nervous!" the robot seemed to collapse to the ground next to Zed, who seemed to ignore the machines pain and pick of two machete like weapons with round spinning 'pizza cutter' like tops.

Death felt like grinding her palm into her own forehead…urge to slaughter rising….everything that just happened has been so….pointless, why didn't Zed bring is weapons with him?

Scythe at the ready Death leapt forward arm out at her side swinging her blade in a large arc like fashion for a giant overhead cleave. Zed kicked his little robotic helper out of the way, metal catching metal, her giant scythe with his blades in an X shaped fashion.

"You have some patience issues girly, the match hasn't even started yet. You have to wait for the buzzer to go off."

"Fuck that, wasting to much time. Must-get-going." Death spun, a leg kicking out from under her cloak, the screech of metal sliding across metal as the blades came apart. With a hard thrust forward Death's foot connected with Zed's chest sending him skidding across the ground.

Zed's mask deflated some from an intake of breath "I'm from an island called the Badlands, you'll need to do a lot better than that girl to harm me." Death didn't say anything only sliced threw the air where Zed had just occupied, he ducked, thrusting one blade forward while pressing a button on its handle making the circler blade spin catching Death's cloak.

It snagged and ripped, Death cursed while leaping backwards easily removing it from her body. Zed however raised an eyebrow at her appearance "Why would a beautiful girl like you be hiding in this cloak?"

Death adjusted her skull mask, contemplating the need to invest in more of a helmet like 'hood'. A hiss escaped her lips, ignoring the doctor…she didn't need her cloak this body of hers was enough of a distraction. She also didn't need any of those…fancy attacks of Elsa's to win this…really why would you want your enemy to know what your about to do.

Zed charged her, blades out at his sides ready to take her head off, she parried, a blade still managed to catch her on the upper arm. The second grazing her hip, knee shooting up smashing into Zed's face. Death's blade came down digging into Zed's shoulder, surprisingly Zed acted like it never happened as he bent foreword forcefully yanking the scythe out of her hands.

Spinning on his heels he nailed Death on the hip, blade sinking in deep into the flesh of her hip. Yelling in pain Death lurched forward grabbing a handful of his hair slamming the masked man's face into the ground rapidly multiple times.

"That-hurt-you-son-of-a-bitch!"

Zed's nose was broken for sure now, the blood could be seen seeping into his surgical mask, but the doctor was by no means out. His hand regained a good grip on the handle of his blade, with a solid yank he pulled it out of the woman's flesh. The pain Death felt was enough for her to let go of Zed's head allowing him to through the woman off of him onto the ground.

"You need meds girl! Thankfully I-" A furred foot slammed into his face, and quickly changed back into Death's own leg when it touched the ground. Her scythe back in her hand, with a screech leapt into the air.

The Viking noticing she's left herself open with that attack jumped to the air also shouting _"Surgical Precision!"_ his blades near disappeared, Death's scythe was spinning at such speeds it to was invisible to the regular human eye. Sparks flashed in the sky, the small flashes of friction of metal on metal filled that air.

Blood rained, two bodies collided with the ground.

Both Death and Zed laid on their backs, pools of their own blood, but for similar yet different reasons. The doctor was now clutching his now stump of a left arm, a clean cut made by Death's scythe blood now covering his entire body.

Death on the other hand was gasping for breath, she couldn't breath well. One of Zed's blades was lodged in her shoulder close to her neck, she couldn't feel her arm! Out of the corner of her eye as she tried to lift her head noticed Shan running in her direction.

Shan slid to her knees next to her friend's fallen body. Elsa's pained filled eyes looking up at her in sorrow fear and worry "S-Sha-an wha-what hap-happened…" she managed to gasp out before darkness enveloped her.

Purple hair whipping around her head as she snapped it in the direction of her friends "Sunshine! Crow! Help!"

**Winner: Doctor Zed**** Vikings:1 - Death Root:0**

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**-X-**

* * *

**Fight scene's are the bane of my existence in the fan fiction world, I hate them **_**SO MUCH**_**….sad that I enjoy writing One Piece fan fiction, it's basically a must in One Piece OC stories. This chapter…kind of explains more of Elsa's…mental problems. Also hope you guys enjoyed Bob…you may be seeing more of him.**

**Next Chapter: Kazuya fights! Two archers collide! Razz and Mac make unnamed cameos and how is Elsa!**


	11. Viking Arc V

**I don't own One Piece!…and Razz appears in this chapter…and I haven't done his accent in while, so if it's not as you remember…we'll lets just say Razz can change his voice…WHAT! He's a singer!**

_-x-_

_Chapter 11: Awinter is coming_

_-x-_

Bob the marine wasn't having a wonderful time, an oh so…non-wonderful time sounded right. His day was turning out worse, it like some god woke up and declared it 'Make all Bob's suffer day' which he was sure was every other month on Wednesdays. First he stepped on a fishhook early this morning while he mopped the docks, who left those things lying around where people fished that's just a safety hazard.

Then he was stopped by that…odd fellow that actually listened to him which made him late to a meeting. His superior officer yelled at him, which surprised Bob truthfully…his superior KNEW HIS NAME!

But enough of that, since he was late he was now given the job of giving food to one of the more violent inmates on the ship. Supposedly six marines died so far by this guy, Bob questioned Mass Claws reasoning for keeping a wild prisoner here on this ship but a lowly grunt like him shouldn't question those higher…shouldn't they?

A loud roar jolted Bob from his thoughts, nearly spilling the large tray of food that he cared. Head whipping around looking for the location the beast that released such a yell, another roar, this time the lowly marine managed to locate the sound in the room…he was suppose to go into.

"Room six…six…nine!" Bob released a breath "Dodged a bullet there." Taking a key he was given and with a soft click he opened the door getting his first…shadow obscured look at the person who he was bringing food to. All Bob could tell was that it was a man, he was huge, his eyes glowed dangerously in the dark, and the chains rattled every time the huge man shifted in his anger.

Sucking in a breath Bob lift a foot to take a careful step into the cell that restrained the dangerous man.

"I vouldn't do dat amigo." stated a heavily accented voice from his side. Again Bob looked for the source of the voice and found him rather easily, a handsome caramel skinned man with pitch black hair. His outfit a pure white prisoners garb suggesting he was a 'Trusted', a prisoner who's been good and obtained the privilege to walk around in designated areas, hands chained in front and legs chained close together but far enough apart to walk short steps.

Bob blinked "…and why should I listen to an inmate?"

The tan skinned man raised a thin eyebrow "Vhy? Dat big fella in dar is as close to meh as a brother vould beh. I vould suggest letting meh take dat food to him."

Bob squinted in confusing at the man "That…makes no sense."

The prisoner grinned "Or I could knock 'ou out, release da big fella an 'ou vould be killed in his rampage out of ear."

The marine quickly handed the tray over to the man, and watched as the prisoner walked into the cell of the man that's killed marine while in prison. A hire up would have probably either killed or locked him up for this stunt but truthfully…Bob just didn't want to die. He had no special skill, no…not really explained power, and he grew up in a town with no really troubles. So letting the man with the accent take the food was-

" 'ou doing okay big fella?" they where speaking!

" ….Music man?….my death…my death is in pain…" the large man seemed to whimper like a hurt animal.

"Vhat do vo mean comrade?"

"My…my death, my little rabbit…in…in PAIN!" the roar echoed through the hallways, making an inmate or two shouted in annoyance, some just started to scream just because…Bob hoped that no one noticed.

"Vo mean E-" the man with the accent paused "-Death…our Death?"

"MY DEATH! Music man, let me out! I must find my Death!"

"Calm down meh friend, I vill speak to Shark and Root."

Prisoner Six-Six-Nine responded with a low growl, the tanned man slowly exited and closed the cell door giving a quick nod to Bob, which made Bob ask probably the most redundant question after what he just heard "Everything all right?"

The prisoner paused briefly "Ve shall see…"

-X-

To say Elsa was suffering from extreme blood loss was like comparing a deep ocean to a kiddy pool. Death Root's embodiment of death laid perfectly still, corpse like as Shan patched and sew her friends skin back together in a now bloody Med-Bay. Pale skin became ghostly blotched with smeared blood, stitches and bandages ran over her body. Most will heal up perfectly, maybe a few light scars but that was to be expected in this business, this was all possible due to some weird healing cream developed by the WG, how else did people get in fights and not have any long term scaring. However that nasty wound Elsa received way to close her neck, and the horrid slice across the young woman's midsection will leave disfigurements that will scar both mentally and physically.

Shan didn't know how she'll break the news to Elsa that she'll never be able to have children anymore. It had to be done, but at the moment the doctor didn't want more on her plate.

The violet haired doctor let out a long stress filled sigh. Truthfully she never actually expected Elsa to lose that fight. Shan could admit to herself that her current patient didn't lose badly, Zed was now missing a couple of limbs.

But this first loss put things in perspective for Shan, a perspective that was beaten in her mind. These…Vikings has skill, she wasn't afraid to admit it, or at least skill equal to or above that of Death Root's current 'Active' roster. They didn't know where Zed stood in strength in the Vikings side. But the opposite could be said for her group, as they didn't know where Death stood on 'skill' ranking.

"Ms. Shan?" Shan jumped a little before taking a calming breath and masking her emotions to turn and see little Destiny looking up wide eyed at her, tears seem to be ready to fall from her face "Is Ms. Death going to be alright?"

The concern in the child's voice and face was endearing, Destiny had only been with them for a short time and Elsa was probably the least nice one to her. But the way the girl expressed her emotions she could tell the little half-fish girl already cared deeply for them, maybe she already cared for them like family.

"Yes sweetheart…she's going to be just fine." Shan mumbled, a slight waver in her voice due to stress. The young girl seemed to notice the woman's dilemma, approaching slowly Destiny rested her tiny hand on Shan's hip.

"Are you okay ?"

Something seemed to break…or to put it more simply snap within Shan. With a quick check over Elsa to make sure the younger woman was stable, sunk down to her knees "Now Destiny…no I'm not."

Destiny frowned, scooting closer to wrap her tiny arms around Shan's neck "Auntie Angel says hugs make everyone fell better."

-X-

While Shan was being comforted by Destiny the fights haven't stopped. None of the Vikings moved to help Zed, only that robot, and he seemed to now be treating himself. Penny bounced foot to foot both in excitement and worry, Kaz was checking the tautness of his bow, and Gilmore…was reading a fashion magazine.

The large blackboards name beeped in rapid secession. No one on Death Root's side really wanted to fight, but they all knew that if they didn't there would be little to no chance they'll be able to recover their missing family.

The letters slowed, names started to form. The Vikings cheered when the name to their half pf the board became clear to read. Death Root was somewhat different there wasn't anger or joy…it was more of a mixed reaction. Penny sighed in disappointment, Gilmore went back to reading when he realized Von Elric wasn't in the next fight, his purpose for being at this particular gathering was to face the Vikings leader due to his frustrating morals.

Kazuya however yelled out in frustration "Oh come on! I finally get a decent fight and it's when I'm missing my swords _**and**_ injured!"

Gilmore raised his non-burnt eyebrow at the red eyed blonde haired man "You know you just basically told them you were handicapped."

"Fuck…you…Crispy…"

Penny clapped her hands together and smiled "Well I guess we'll just call this a lose and get onto the next fight." she quickly covered her mouth to suppress a giggle.

"Fuck you to Sunshine."

Said cook shrugged "Hey I can fuck myself as much as I want, I am thou a little to young for your taste Crow…unless you're a pedo…you aren't a pedo are you?" she questioned with a raised brow.

Kazuya was briefly stunned out of his seething anger and with a quick glance into Gilmore's direction saw said colorful man was just as shocked by that statement coming from the little girl as he was.

"N-no."

Penny gave him an angelic like smile, Kazuya shivered seeing it as way more demonic "Good…" The pre-teen stretched her arms behind her back and…

…and one quickly shot forward, slapping him across the face.

"What the hell!"

Penny puffed out her cheeks and pointed at the giant black screen "Damn it Crow get the hell out there and prove you're a man by-" glancing over her shoulder at the board,

**The Crow**

**VS**

**Awinter**

Penny's cheeks ballooned out this time in mirth trying to hold in laughter "-by beating up a girl! Good luck man!" The laughter she was holding in broke out when she finished that sentence and it was all directed at Kazuya's expense.

-X-

Shan gave a small kiss to Destiny's head as she laid the child down into her bed. It felt awkward acting the mother especially with what was going on in her life, and the tornado of emotions that she had under strict control from the past few weeks.

When she finally got the men back, and Elsa's head was back on strait maybe …just maybe she'll ask the younger woman for some help…after all she was going to-

'_Brirbribri….birriririr….birrriiirir_'

Shan blink, that was the sound of one of the ship's main Den Den's, most likely another client in need of their unique skills. With a sigh the purple haired doctor left the young child to sleep. It wasn't along distance to find one of the mainlines there was at least one in each major room.

"Hello?"

"_Now there's a wonderful voice for my ears! It's a total sausage fest here…well other than that dominatrix loli."_

Shan let out a startled gasp.

-X-

Kazuya grumbled to himself, getting his bow and arrows ready. The ebony skin of the Amazon like woman seemed to give off an unearthly glow as she to readied her similar weapon.

His red eyes traveled along the woman's curves, her long toned legs, lithe arms that showed the power she can fire her arrows at, and the way she held said weapon in her hands.

She was an experienced archer, and the Crow could tell just that. Nocking an arrow to test the string resistance, his opponents muscles tensed on her…gorgeous body-

A rock collided with the side of his head, a yell from Penny breaking him from his stupor telling him to 'Get the hell ready!'. He was as ready as he could get without his swords so was Awinter.

**BEEP…BEEEEPPPP….BEEEEEEEEEPPP!**

There was the buzzer signaling the start of the match, both archers sending arrows right at each other, the buzzers sound died in the air. However unlikely both arrows collided in midair cutting into each other before shattering. Smoke burst from what was once the arrow Kazuya fired, now that sight has been obscured both archers leaped into the foliage.

Rushing into a more tree crowded area, Crow jumped hooking an arm around one of the tree's branches hefting pulling himself up with little effort snuggling himself in a good position for a good view, and very low visibility. Red eye's scanning the forest for any sign of the dark skinned Amazon.

Now Kazuya could be considered one of the best when it came to archery, nowadays barley anyone used the long range art in favor of something people with…less skill, that being firearms. So either this Viking Amazon woman was a master of the craft like him, or she picking it up thinking it's a unique weapon….but he was going for the former.

He was correct as the sudden split in the air, and a sharp pain in his cheek confirmed that an arrow narrowly missed his head. Hmmmm….she had good eyesight.

"Your actually pretty good!" Called Crow

"Well I wasn't carrying it as an accessory." Awinter's somewhat gruff voice cutting through the leaves and bushes, it held somewhat of a taunting tone to it.

Nocking his bow just under his nose Kazuya called out "So I'm guessing you can see me?"

"No shit pretty boy." The sound of a string being released caused Kaz to launch himself from the tree, hitting the ground rolling, a hiss of pain shooting through his already messed up shoulder. Looking back as he finished his roll in a crouched position seeing an arrow embedded right where his head used to be.

Without even pulling up his bow, Kazuya reached back grabbing one of his ice arrows and flung it across the forest towards the area where Awinter. Crow did have an amazing upper body strength due to his training, even though at a slower speed the arrow did hold great force as it tore through the bushes leaving a frozen icy trail. Pulling his bow up nocking a rather dull looking around with a rounded tip Kazuya fired leaving a good line of site to the hidden woman as the dull arrow shattered the frozen objects as it passed.

The mercenary archer smiled "Got ya."

-X-

"Shit…" cursed Awinter, launching herself to the side as a barrage of arrows that seemed to have been shot all at the same time crashed down around the very spot. She didn't know if it was possible for a man to move that fast, she for one hasn't seen it, but it did happen. She knew that this may not have been an easy fight, after seeing Zed getting torn apart by that Death girl.

Sure he won but that was more his will outlasting Death's dreariness from blood loss.

Awinter knew that outlasting this man was an option. If his appearance before the had anything to say to it she had at least five times more arrows than he carried. What worried her though was if all of them had some sort of special ability then she was in trouble. She could combat his in close range but she didn't carry anything for that particular distance of fighting other then-

Awinter smiled, that seemed to split her face in two.

No male was going to best her.

-X-

Vice-Admiral 'Mass Claw' James growled stomping down the near deserted halls of the prison. Only the minimal amount of guards were station across the building, the best of the best but still only a few. It was a holiday, marines wanted to see their families, only those who didn't have families to return to or where needed desperately to stay guard stayed.

All he wanted to do on this day was kick up his feet and relax, his one day out of the month to just get away from the craziness.

Sadly no such luck for him, one of his prisoners is unaccounted for.

It also had to be the most troublesome person he's ever meet, and if he knew said guy, and James both studied, fought, and talked to this particular man so yes he knew him pretty well.

Opening the door to his office, yes his office it was the least likely place a prisoner would go…so obviously he was going to there. As he walked in Mass Claw instantly spotted him, messing around on James' wall of trophies from different outlaws.

"Ordam!"

Endo Ordam calmly twirled around snapping an eye patch he found on the trophy wall into place over his missing eye "Jamesy! What a inconvenient for you to walk in on me!"

The mercenary laughed, James just glared back "I could have you executed for trying to escape."

"Me? Escape? Noooooooo…I'm having to much fun here, plus I can't leave without the guys their my family. Sure I miss my little lady-"

"Shut-up."

Ordam just grinned "Now for the whole executed think, I know you Jamesy I would have been dead ten minutes after the whole Enes Lobby hubalu. I mean really man I helped two notorious pirate crews break out high priority prisoners and basically destroy an assassination group. If Death Root was suppose to be dead it wouldn't surprise me that Shan and the girls would be hunted down, and I would be dead haunting your hair-gel till the end of time."

"What do you want…"

With a wave of his hand "Nothing, nothing just got me this little here treasure, those two odd looking flintlock pistols up there are rather…interesting, I could defiantly shoot some stone power pirates with a weapon based name with those."

"That was oddly specific."

"I know right."

The blonde couldn't have done much, he was only reported missing from his cell forty minutes prior, or that was what James thought until he saw his desk phone looked recently used. Growling in his deep voice James snarled at the blonde " Who-did-you-call!"

Again Ordam waved at him "Call the purple hair love of my life…oh and Jamesy did you know one of my crew members is royalty, or at least comes from a rich family that wants him back. Did you also know that said island he came from is an ally of the World Government and that he has diplomatic immunity."

"No."

"Well good expect a rather surprising call in a few hours."

Ordam seemed to move in a blur out of the room "I can sense in the future Jamesy that you and me with be great friends, exchanging holiday cards, having brinner and everything!"

"Like hell that will happen!"

"Have no fears Jamesy! It's fate!"

James sighed into his hands after the mercenary left the room, if that particular line was true then he felt like Fate took the pleasure of bending him over and raping him with the metal-spiked strap-on of destiny. Deep down in his very soul he knew that if the final orders from the high-ups goes through that may very well end up being true to a certain extent.

**-X-**

**Hey look the DoD update woho! What's this Kazuya's fight didn't end but why! Easy it was pissing me off battles at range really piss me off, fight scenes themselves piss me off for the most part. You'll see as this story goes on I'm going to faze out saying attack names just because I find it stupid, your basically telling your opponent what your going to do.**

**I want to make this story more realistic…or at least as realistic as a story based in a world where people mostly get superpowers from eating fruit…hmmm what a health conscious story.**

**Next chapter shit happens! Which one of the DR's in the slammer has diplomatic immunity! Who where those people that appeared in the godly beam of light! Why am I using so many exclamation marks! **

**Oh yeah, on my deviant art page for those of you who don't know there are drawings there of Endo and Shen, and another of Shen with Koi.**

**So Read and Review, then go do other stuff till my next update!**

**Peace out!**


	12. Authors

**Chapters 12 & 13 (the final two chapters of the Viking Arc) of Death Root Dark Heart have been lost due to extreme circumstances, they will be rewritten at some point but as my fans know I have a undying HATE for writing and rewriting fight scenes because they never turn out how I picture them.**

**SO! DO NOT REVIEW CHAPTERS 12 AND 13! These two identical authors notes will be place holders for the chapters for when they do get rewritten.**

**Due to me wanting to not keep my fans (if there are any left) waiting, the next arc will be coming soon.**

**Sincerely, **

**The DoD**


	13. Note

**Chapters 12 & 13 (the final two chapters of the Viking Arc) of Death Root Dark Heart have been lost due to extreme circumstances, they will be rewritten at some point but as my fans know I have a undying HATE for writing and rewriting fight scenes because they never turn out how I picture them.**

**SO! DO NOT REVIEW CHAPTERS 12 AND 13! These two identical authors notes will be place holders for the chapters for when they do get rewritten.**

**Due to me wanting to not keep my fans (if there are any left) waiting, the next arc will be coming soon.**

**Sincerely, **

**The DoD**


	14. Point of View I

**I don't own One Piece, I do own most of the OC's that appear in this fan fiction however. Sorry for the long wait two chapters lost, and just plain life have gotten in the way. Now the up come arc is something I've been meaning to try, it's going to be….different….**

**-X-**

**Chapter 14: 'Point of View' Arc**

**-X-**

Luther aw himself a decent man, a fantastic person in the mind of his servants, and a kind loveable, fair king of his domain. He was of fair height and average build but showed every year of his sixty five years of age. His once full head of slick black hair now near gone and the color of snow.

Staring out of the large window of to the side of his thrown room that allowed him to lookout unto his Kingdom of Camelot. His castle towered over the island standing at ten story's tall and just as wide, littering the ground far beneath his castle were close to sixty houses some empty, the rest filled with his fifty wives. Truthfully he didn't remember all of their names, it was near impossible, fifty wives, seventy nine children, thirty something grandchildren/children, and just grandchildren his old mind couldn't keep all of those name in one place. It didn't matter anyway as long as his bloodline lived on then that was all he cared about.

The only two wives who's named he wanted to remember, and only cared to try and remember was his first wife who cursed him with that troublesome demon child Arthur, Jen the love of his cursed sons life. Now that was a woman, hair of fire, the will of a lion in and out of bed. When the first year they were married he had his guards hold down the struggling woman, but he did finally tamer the animal.

If Luther remembered correctly Jen gave birth to two children of his a red-haired one like their mother, and a black haired one like himself. But sadly both of those wonderful wives of his were long past, his first one by disease and Jen by his own hand…the woman shouldn't have betrayed him. Thankfully Jen's place he filled quickly with their oldest daughter, the red-head, and made her his wife.

Shaking his head at the reminiscing, and went back to observing his kingdom. Surrounding the homes of his wives laid a wall and beyond that dirt roads crisscrossed between wooden houses and abandoned buildings….it was pathetic. Luther loathed those 'dirt people', the couldn't pay their taxes, lazy, and made his kingdom a joke to the others. Arthur had better control of those lowlifes…and someone trying to usurp his power over these people was not allowed…even his demon child first son.

Thankfully he's already taken the steps to fix the blemish on his kingdoms history. Luther turned around from the light of the window to stare deep into the shadows of the corner in the room. A dark as night cloak shifted slightly, any light in the area seemed to be absorbed, a cold bone white masked hidden slightly beneath the hood of the cloak sent chills down his spine.

Luther took a deep breath "I'll go over this one more time, because I paid you and your people damn good money to get this right! I want my kingdom protected, to prosper, and to do just that my son Arthur needs to be….taken-out, gone, never to be seen by me again got it?" a sharp gasp came from the direction of the throne room door, a flash of bright red hair, the slam of a door, and the scurry of feet quickly across the hallway floor. Luther frowned, the only person even allowed in his presence was his and Jen's daughter and one of his current wives, Jean.

"Damn…and she was one of my youngest wives to," waving a hand in the direction of the door before speaking to the grim reaper like….person in the corner "Do the same to Jean as I've asked you to do about Arthur. I can't let any connection of these coming events to be traced back to me, the very reason I hired you .mercenaries was so I didn't have to use my guards." he suddenly glared at the cloaked figure "We'll! Get to it!"

The cloaked mercenary faded back into the shadows in a manner that made…it seem like it was melting. Luther grinned, soon…soon his kingdom will be fantastic and glorious again.

-X-

Only a few months away from his fortieth birthday the thirty nine year old Arthur was feeling as young as he ever did, as he strolled through the outer Kingdom. A kind wave and a cheerful smile made the citizens brighten, he conversed with a few, a few more hands shaken in thanks for all that he's tried to do for them. Arthur would do anything for his people, all of these people, to protect them from his basterd of a father.

"If you keep smiling like that prince your pace will be frozen like that forever." a growling voice spoke from his side.

"Ah-ha Lance, you should know no woman would want to touch you with a face like yours, at least willingly." laughed the prince, ice blue eyes dancing in humor, black hair falling down his back.

Lance was Arthur's only loyal soldier, and his best friend to boot. Lance was a short man leg wise and tall in body, built like a bull in plated armor. A scarred face that would remind people of ogres and a head shave completely bald.

He was as tough as nails wrapped in barbed wire dipped in cement, a powerful fighter. The kind of person that the people of his kingdom found odd to be supporting Arthur instead of King Luther.

Arthur on the other hand was a tell, well built fellow with shoulder length black hair that framed his face, a face that had many women swooning. His usual garb consisted of a red and gold silk vest with cow hid pants that fit snugly while tucking nicely into his boots.

With an extravagant gesture of the hands Arthur motioned to the people going about their daily lives as he and Lance walked through the streets "Ah! See the people Lance! They are what makes this kingdom great, not those who rule it…if only my father would see that."

"Yes prince but King Luther has his 'own' kingdom of wenches to worry about behind that bloody wall of his."

Arthur spat at the ground, disgusted at the very mention of his fathers name "Keeping women and children looked behind that wall to serve and pleasure him it's a mockery built buy a pervert and pedophile that has to much power!" his breathing grew rapid "Many of his so called wives are daughters and granddaughters of his first ones from when I was a child! My nieces and half-sisters! His own children!"

Raising his hands in defense Lance tried to calm the prince down "No reason to get all hot and bother prince. I know how you feel about this whole subject, I'm just saying having a whole bunch of beautiful women like that seems like ever mans dream…"

" A pathetic dream that's worth nothing. I'll rather have one woman that I love and loves me with all of our heart, than fifty that are just their or hate my guts."

Lance laughed a little "Well it's not like that single woman will come running up to you out of nowhe-"

"Prince Arthur help! Help me! Please!" a hurried female voice called out from behind, causing the two men to swivel their heads into that direction.

Lance looked to the sky "It's not like 2 million beli would fall out of the sky right?…damn."

Running towards the two was a woman between the age of eighteen and twenty, with flaming red hair that seemed to shift colors as the sunlight hit it. A thin face filled with panic, a well trimmed body rushing at the two in a hurry, and she was only tall enough to reach Arthur's chest. After taking note of the beautiful woman's appearance he noticed she was dragging behind her a young girl with midnight black hair.

"Hey prince with hair like that she looks remarkably like…"

"Jen…" he mumbled as the two girls came to a stop in front of him, oddly enough not sweating a bit.

"Who…are…you?"

The oldest of the two looked up at him threw red strands of hair that fell into place when she stopped, large brown eyes filled hope and worry "M-My name is Jean a-and this is my l-little sister Catherine…your Prince Arthur r-right?"

Lance squinted his eyes at the two females for a bit taking note of this dresses "By the way your dressed woman I'll say your either a wife or daughter of the King. What kind of help would you need the prince for?"

"I-I'm actually both…sir…" Arthur shot Lance at 'See I told you' look "…but I overheard the K-King talking a-and he's…hired some…people to kill you! The King noticed me! He's probably sent them after me as well!"

Lance growled "And what if I believe you to be lying girly? Hmm? You could just be another cock sheath stooge of the basterd."

"Lance! Watch your tongue in front of the women! Give me a second." bending down eyelevel to the red-head "Who…is your mother?"

"Her name was Jen…"

The prince let out a shaky breath and stood back to his full height just as an arrow shot right past his ear. Both men spun around drawing swords that they had attached to their hips looking up from the direction the arrow came from spotting the shooter rather easily. A red eyed blonde man grinned down at them from his crouched position on a roof, his crimson red trench coat flicking and turning with the wind.

Catherine, the younger girl, frowned slightly looking up at their attacker "Do you believe us now brother?"

Spinning the sword, trying to loosen the cramp in his wrist, Lance mimicking with a similar action "Who are you assailant?"

The blonde man gave a half-hearted shrug of his shoulders, hopped off the roof sliding down an oddly placed metal poll "I really don't see the point in telling this, you'll be dead oh so soon and I don't really feel like wasting my breath."

"You've already waste enough to speak, why not just waste a bit more for a name?" asked Arthur, signaling Lance from behind his back to get the girls and go.

"Touché princey, it's rather simple really my name is Crow and I'm just one of many that have been hired to 'take care of' you-" Crow waggled his eyebrows a little "-if you know what I'm saying."

"So my father wants me dead, about time the basterd actually went through with his threats."

"You can also say we were also hired to kill that smoking hot red-head and her sister also…" Crow blinked slowly "…where the hell did they good!"

Arthur ignored the mans comment in favor of asking his own question "We?"

"Did you think your father would cheap out and only hire little ol'me? Hopefully the other three saw where those girls went…" Crow shrugged again"…time is money though, DIE PRINCE!"

-X-

Lance managed to get the girls away fast enough before the red-eyed man took notice. Luckily in under a few minutes he managed to get the two young women to the outskirts of town. Arthur knew of the location in which he was headed, the furthest point of their island, just beyond the forest.

"We're almost to the forest girls! From there we can slow down a bit!"

The smaller one frowned "And where exactly is there Dumbass?"

"Cat! Mother told you not to use that kind of language!"

"Well she's dead now isn't she!" Catherine growled back, sucking in some breath as they kept running. The two girls were slow, at least to his soldiers trained body, but they never stopped due to either good cardio or plain fear.

Jean gasped "Cat…how could you say…such a…thing." Lance growled to himself, he did not need to hear a sibling spat while they ran for their lives.

"You want to know why! It's because of-Ack!"

"Catherine!" Lance spun around when he heard the scream of pain to see Catherine collapse onto the ground with a single syringe jutting out of the side of her neck.

"Where the hell did that come from!" the soldier studied all directions, their fronts and sides where all clear…that just left back…from the city.

"It just came out of nowhere! It hit her and..now she's d-dea-dead!"

"Cut the hysterics girl your sister is fine for now, she's still breathing…probably was poisoned…but she is alive." He hefted the little black haired girl onto his back, pushing Jean in front of him with his shoulder.

"Run ahead of me girl! Hurry to those trees! That's where we will meet the prince!"

**-X-**

**To be continued…**

**-X-**

**Here's chapter 14...released after chapter 12...in the middle of an arc but you all you what happened with that. As you can see this arc is going to be front the point of view of the hire-y and two of the 'victims'.**

**Tell me what you think?**

**Also this arc isn't that long, only about two more chapters (which is most of Dark Heart a couple of small arcs and two bigish ones leading up to the prison)**


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